The New Cromwell How Steve Bannon Is Shaping Trump’S Presidency Pages 4, 16

MAIN STORIES MAIN STORIES OBITUARIES ‘NUCLEAR’ The furor The TV career WAR OVER over Trump’s woman who THE COURT travel ban inspired millions p.5 Neil Gorsuch p.4 p.35 Mary Tyler Moore

THE BEST OF THE U.S. AND INTERNATIONAL MEDIA The new Cromwell How Steve Bannon is shaping Trump’s presidency Pages 4, 16

FEBRUARY 10, 2017 VOLUME 17 ISSUE 808

THERE WERE THOSE WHO BELIEVED THE BODY COULD NEVER FIGHT CANCER. NEVER SAY NEVER.

Today, researchers are using immunotherapy treatments to stimulate the body’s immune system to destroy invading cancer cells. Welcome to the future of medicine. For all of us. Contents 3

Editor’s letter I n November 1811, northern England’s weavers and textile work- sourcing. American firms have been steadily cutting employees ers declared war on the machines. Gangs of men with faces black- and replacing them with machines that are cheaper (they don’t ened to hide their identities stormed into factories, using swords, need benefits) and more efficient (they don’t take vacations). U.S. hammers, and axes to smash apart the newfangled power looms factories now produce twice as much stuff as they did in 1984, and spinning frames that were replacing their skilled labor. The but with one-third of the workers. And smarter machines will Luddite uprising raged for five years before being crushed by the soon steal a lot more jobs: One Oxford University study pre- British army. Dozens of textile workers were executed or exiled to dicts that 47 percent of U.S. jobs will be automated over the next Australia, their war on progress a failure. Some 200 years on, ad- two decades. Some 1.7 million truckers could be rendered redun- vances in automation continue to cause political and social up- dant by self-driving vehicles, and computers could replace millions heaval. President Trump routinely blames the disappearance of more store cashiers, insurance underwriters, and tax preparers. U.S. manufacturing jobs on bad trade deals and cut-rate compe- Lawmakers can’t ban companies from adopting new technologies, tition from China and Mexico—attacks that have struck a chord but will they be able to pass policies—such as more funding for with Rust Belt voters. But that populist rage should really be di- retraining schemes—to help workers adapt to this new industrial rected at the robots (see Technology). revolution? If they don’t, we might one day see angry out-of-work A recent study found that 85 percent of manufacturing job accountants or truckers go Luddite, and take a Theunis Bates losses from 2000 to 2010 were caused by automation, not out- hammer to their robotic replacements. Managing editor

NEWS 4 Main stories Backlash against Editor-in-chief: William Falk President Trump’s travel Managing editors: Theunis Bates, Carolyn O’Hara ban; a conservative pick Deputy editor/International: Susan Caskie for SCOTUS Deputy editor/Arts: Chris Mitchell Senior editors: Harry Byford, Alex Dalenberg, Richard Jerome, Dale Obbie, 6 Controversy of the week Hallie Stiller, Frances Weaver Will Trump’s growing Art director: Dan Josephs Photo editor: Loren Talbot diplomatic rift with Copy editors: Jane A. Halsey, Jay Wilkins Chief researcher: Christina Colizza Mexico result in a Contributing editors: Ryan Devlin, damaging trade war? Bruno Maddox 7 The U.S. at a glance VP, publisher: John Guehl VP, marketing: Tara Mitchell San Francisco sues over Sales development director: Samuel Homburger sanctuary city order; Boy Account director: Steve Mumford Scouts admit transgender Account manager: Shelley Adler Detroit director: Lisa Budnick children Midwest director: Lauren Ross Northwest director: Steve Thompson 8 The world at a glance Southeast director: Jana Robinson Protesters in Las Vegas demonstrate against Trump’s travel ban. (p.4) Southwest directors: James Horan, Massacre at a Canadian Rebecca Treadwell mosque; a U.S. raid in Integrated marketing director: Nikki Ettore ARTS LEISURE Integrated associate marketing director: Yemen goes wrong Betsy Connors 23 Books 27 Food & Drink Integrated marketing managers: 10 People Matthew Flynn, Caila Litman Patients whose illnesses Filipino food fi nally gets Research and insights manager: Paris Jackson’s Neverland Joan Cheung were all in their heads its due Marketing designer: Triona Moynihan memories; Nicole Marketing coordinator: Reisa Feigenbaum Kidman’s maternal 24 Author of the week 28 Travel Digital director: Garrett Markley Senior digital account manager: instinct The blackjack whiz who Stargazing in Chile’s Yuliya Spektorsky beat Wall Street stunning Atacama Desert Digital planner: Jennifer Riddell 11 Briefi ng Chief operating & financial officer: As the U.K. moves ahead 25 Art, Stage & Film 29 Consumer Kevin E. Morgan Director of financial reporting: with Brexit, how will it Christo, wrapper of Beauty products that work Arielle Starkman landmarks, makes a while you sleep EVP, consumer marketing & products: fare outside the EU? Sara O’Connor 12 Best U.S. columns political stand Consumer marketing director: BUSINESS Leslie Guarnieri The White House’s 26 Television Production manager: Kyle Christine Darnell HR/operations manager: Joy Hart troubling Holocaust spin; A smart new 32 News at a glance Adviser: Ian Leggett Paul Ryan’s long game superhero Trump demands regulatory Chairman: John M. Lagana show from the rollback; the economics of U.K. founding editor: Jolyon Connell 15 Best international Company founder: Felix Dennis columns creator of TV’s kid power Trapped overseas by Fargo 33 Making money Trump’s travel ban How student loan lawsuits Visit us at TheWeek.com. might affect your debt For customer service go to www 16 Talking points .TheWeek.com/service or phone us Bannon’s West Wing 34 Best columns at 1-877-245-8151. infl uence; breakaway Trump’s fi rst weeks Renew a subscription at www California; hope in the Nicole .RenewTheWeek.com or give a gift unsettle CEOs; the shift to at www.GiveTheWeek.com.

Roger Kisby/Redux, Newscom Kisby/Redux, Roger pro-life movement Kidman (p.10) a cashless world

THE WEEK February 10, 2017 4 NEWS The main stories... Travel ban prompts chaos, protests What happened of the seven nations Trump designated President Donald Trump’s temporary travel has committed an act of terrorism in the ban on visitors and immigrants from seven U.S., yet nations whose citizens have been Muslim-majority countries triggered a involved in terrorism—Saudi Arabia, Paki- firestorm this week, with mass protests at stan, Egypt, and others—are exempt. Why? several major airports, widespread confu- Refugees from Syria and other Middle sion among border control officials, and a Eastern nations are already “the most growing spate of lawsuits challenging the vetted group of travelers to the U.S.,” said order’s legality. Signed late in the day last BloombergView.com. The process takes at Friday, the travel ban blocks immigrants least 18 months, and involves background from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, checks by several government agencies. Syria, and Yemen for 90 days, and suspends the U.S. refugee program for 120 days. With Actually, Trump’s temporary ban is “mostly travelers given no prior warning about the right on the substance,” said National new policy, and many immigration officials Muslim and Jewish protesters in Chicago Review.com. With Islamic terrorists “pos- unsure about how to execute it, more than ing as refugees to obtain admission into 700 visa holders were prevented from boarding U.S.-bound flights; Europe,” it makes sense for the U.S. to “evaluate and strengthen” hundreds more landed at American airports, only to be placed on our own vetting process. But the implementation of the ban was a return flights or handcuffed, detained, and questioned for hours. travesty. Its architects—White House chief strategist Steve Ban- Those caught up included entire refugee families from Syria, Iraqi non and senior adviser Stephen Miller—“overrode cautions” from interpreters who helped the U.S. during the Iraq War, and an Iraqi lawyers about the details of the order; federal agencies and border general currently leading the fight against ISIS. Permanent U.S. control agents weren’t given sufficient guidance, leading to ugly residents, known as green card holders, were initially among those detentions, outrage, and “spectacular protests.” banned but are now being issued waivers. What the columnists said The ban, which immediately applies to more than 90,000 people “Progressives will look for any excuse to call President Trump a in the affected countries who’ve been issued U.S. visas, as well as bigot,” said Adriana Cohen in the Boston Herald. This is not a to thousands of refugees waiting for admission, sparked spontane- “Muslim ban.” The vast majority of the world’s 1.6 billion Mus- ous mass protests at major airports in cities including New York, lims aren’t affected. Trump “isn’t anti-Muslim. He’s anti–radical Washington, Dallas, and Los Angeles. Lawyers and Democratic Islam.” The president is simply carrying out the promises that lawmakers also gathered at airports to help the detained travelers; helped him win the election, said Chris Cillizza in WashingtonPost in one of several lawsuits challenging the ban, a federal judge in .com. A Reuters/Ipsos poll this week showed 49 percent of Ameri- New York issued a temporary injunction blocking the deportation cans supported the ban and 41 percent opposed it, and you can be of those detained. Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, a holdover sure that Trump supporters in particular are “overjoyed” that “he’s from the Obama administration, instructed Justice Department doing what he said he would.” lawyers not to defend the ban; she was immediately sacked by President Trump, who said she had “betrayed” his administration. Nonetheless, the ban is “bad public policy” and “probably uncon- stitutional,” said William Galston in The Wall Street Journal. The Republican leaders backed the executive order, although several Constitution and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 for- lawmakers expressed misgivings. GOP Sens. John McCain and bid discrimination on the basis of religion or national origin. Trump Lindsey Graham argued it would alienate Muslims here and adviser Rudy Giuliani openly boasted that Trump had tasked him abroad and boost recruitment for extremist groups, calling it a with finding a legal workaround for a “Muslim ban.” The fact that “self-inflicted wound in the fight against terrorism.” President the order targets Muslims is further revealed by the administration’s Trump compared his policy to one admission that it plans to give priority to admitting refugees who enacted in 2011, when the visa process are Christian and Yazidi. for Iraqis was slowed for evaluation, What next? and noted that the seven nations were The early successes of immigrant rights groups Trump supporters should be wor- designated “countries of concern” by challenging Trump’s order “could prove fleeting,” ried about the “stunningly inept” the Obama administration. “This is not said Josh Gerstein and Seung Min Kim in Politico way this executive order was imple- a Muslim ban,” he said. “This is about .com. Foreign citizens who are permanent U.S. mented, said Noah Rothman in terror and keeping our country safe.” residents may be protected by prohibitions on re- Commentary Magazine.com. Our new ligious discrimination. But the picture is gloomier “businessman-president” was supposed What the editorials said for refugees and those seeking visas, because to be more competent than career poli- “The U.S. has long been the strongest courts “have rarely accorded constitutional rights ticians. Yet this travel ban was rushed voice for freedom of conscience and hu- to foreigners outside the U.S.” Moreover, presi- into effect without proper coordination man dignity,” said the Financial Times. dents have “broad discretion over the nation’s and evaluation by government agencies, With this cruel and heartless move, immigration and refugee policy.” Either way, the resulting in “utter chaos,” heartbreak- President Trump “has departed violently legal battle over the temporary ban could go on ing individual stories about refugees from that tradition.” His ban provides far longer than the 90 days it is supposed to last: and visa holders, and a big dent in nothing but an illusion of security. From “Broad challenges to the Trump orders could take Trump’s credibility. If doubts about 9/11 to this day, no immigrant or child months or even years to play out in the courts.” Trump’s competence grow, his already

of immigrants from Syria, Iraq, or any embattled presidency will be in trouble. Tribune/TNS Nuccio DiNuzzo/Chicago Illustration by Fred Harper. THE WEEK February 10, 2017 President Donald Trump and White House chief strategist Steve Bannon. Cover photos from AP, Newscom (2) ... and how they were covered NEWS 5 Battle lines drawn over Supreme Court pick

What happened Anthony Kennedy drifted left over the years, The partisan war over the U.S. Supreme Court but Gorsuch is unlikely to waver. was on the verge of going nuclear this week, after President Trump nominated Colorado “The Republicans stole this seat from federal appeals court judge Neil Gorsuch, a Obama,” said The Charlotte Observer. But solid conservative, to succeed the late Justice Democrats shouldn’t sink to similar depths. Antonin Scalia. After a months-long selec- Instead of rejecting Gorsuch sight unseen, tion process that began with 21 candidates, they must give him a fair hearing. “We are as Trump introduced Gorsuch, 49, in a televised worried as anyone about the tilt the Supreme prime-time ceremony, saying his nominee “has Court might take under Trump, a damaging outstanding legal skills, a brilliant mind, tre- legacy that could last decades.” Yet Demo- mendous discipline, and has earned bipartisan crats owe it to the American people to assess support.” Democrats, however, are furious Gorsuch for who he is—and if he’s truly out- that the Republican Senate majority blocked Trump introduces Gorsuch to the nation. side the mainstream, they “have a responsibil- Merrick Garland, President Obama’s choice ity to do what they can to defeat him.” for the seat, refusing even to hold hearings for 10 months after Scal- ia’s death last February. “This is a stolen seat,” said Sen. Jeff Merkley What the columnists said (D-Ore.). Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats Gorsuch is Trump’s thank-you gift to white evangelicals, said would filibuster Trump’s pick, because Gorsuch needed to prove McKay Coppins in TheAtlantic.com. During the campaign, they himself “mainstream” enough to win over at least some Democrats winced at his rhetoric, “cringed at his biblical illiteracy, and sighed and attract 60 votes. Trump said that if Democrats use the filibuster, at his less-than-holy personal life.” But 80 percent voted for him Republicans should “go nuclear” and change Senate rules to allow anyway, because he promised to appoint conservative justices Supreme Court nominees to be confirmed with a simple majority. “who would protect their religious freedom and fight abortion The GOP holds a 52-48 edge in the upper chamber. from the bench.” Their “deal with the devil” just paid off.

If confirmed, Gorsuch would tip the 4-4 court back to the right. Democrats should “just say no,” said Scott Lemieux in New Like Scalia, he is an originalist, who believes the Constitution Republic.com. “Gorsuch is a disastrous appointment from a liberal should be interpreted by the intentions of those who wrote it, not perspective.” An admirer of Scalia, he’ll oppose Roe v. Wade and in the context of modern perspectives and values. Gorsuch has be “hostile to the rights of employees and racial minorities.” Some voted consistently in favor of religious-liberty claims, backing argue Democrats should save the filibuster for a later battle—say, to exemptions for faith-based nonprofits opposed to the Affordable replace an aging liberal like Ruth Bader Ginsburg. But Republicans Care Act’s contraception mandate. His record offers no explicit will probably blow up the filibuster anyway. So why hold back? evidence of his views on gay marriage or abortion; he opposed assisted suicide and euthanasia in a 2006 book, writing that human Go ahead, Republicans, “push the nuclear button,” said Marc life was “fundamentally and inherently valuable.” Thiessen in The Washington Post. When Democrats scrapped the filibuster for executive branch nominations and lifetime federal What the editorials said court appointments in 2013, a “line was crossed.” Does anyone “No one can replace Antonin Scalia,” said The Wall Street Journal, doubt that if they’d held the Senate last year, Schumer and friends “but Trump has made an excellent attempt.” A respected jurist, wouldn’t have used the nuclear option to force through Garland? Gorsuch “will adhere to the original meaning of the Constitution,” The GOP now has the chance to appoint a justice who will reshape protect religious liberty, and restrain government overreach. “Every America’s legal landscape for decades to come. If Republicans nuke recent Republican president has disappointed supporters with at the filibuster to do that, “Democrats will have no one to blame but least one of his Supreme Court picks.” Sandra Day O’Connor and themselves—because they set the precedent.”

It wasn’t all bad QLos Angeles–based actor Chris Salvatore, 31, has an unlikely QAs Roseann Sdoia lay in a hospi- best friend and roommate: Norma Cook, his 89-year-old for- tal bed in April 2013, love was the QQuincy isn’t your typical newspa- mer neighbor. The odd couple first met four years ago, when last thing on her mind. She was per delivery boy—for starters, Salvatore moved in across the hall from Cook in their West recovering from the amputation he walks on four legs, not two. Hollywood apartment complex. They bonded over a shared of her right leg, having been badly But every morning for the past love of Champagne and fashion, and when Cook fell ill last wounded in the Boston Marathon 11 years, the golden retriever from year, Salvatore immediately stepped up. He raised $50,000 bombing. But Sdoia’s mother was Boulder has gone from house to online to pay for 24-hour in-home care for Cook, and when impressed with the fireman, Mike house in his neighborhood, fetch- that cash ran low, Materia, who’d accompanied her ing the newspaper at the end of invited his elderly injured daughter to the hospital. each driveway and trotting it up to pal to move in “She was like, ‘He’s so cute,’” said the front porch. Quincy’s owner, with him. “She’s Sdoia. “And I was like, ‘Mom, I Paul Goldan, said his wife, Mary, made me a kinder, just got blown up.’” Materia, 37, came up with the trick, figuring the more compas- continued to check in on Sdoia, dog can fetch a ball, so why not sionate person,” 48. As the weeks passed, the pair a paper? “It’s the sweetest thing,” says Salvatore. fell for each other and recently says neighbor Leah Bradley. “Ev- “She’s changed got engaged. “I do feel that things erybody loves it.” Salvatore and Cook: Roomies my life.” happen for a reason,” says Sdoia. AP, screenshot: Gabriel Gastelum AP,

THE WEEK February 10, 2017 6 NEWS Controversy of the week Mexico: Will Trump start a trade war?

During the raucous rallies that helped propel Donald Trump to dodge U.S. taxes by offshoring their profits. The mechanics to the White House, the nation of Mexico was one of his of the tax are complex, and so would be the politics of getting favorite rhetorical punching bags, said León Krauze in it through Congress. But a BAT wouldn’t cause a trade war, WashingtonPost.com. But the insults and abuse our bully- and no, it wouldn’t “raise the price of your avocados.” in-chief gleefully rained down on our southern neighbor last week were “worse than anything Scuttling NAFTA sure would, said Jude in the campaign.” First, President Trump signed Webber in the Financial Times. If Mexico executive orders affirming his intention to won’t bend to Trump’s demands and he “renegotiate” the North American Free Trade withdraws the U.S. from the treaty, as he has Agreement and build his notorious border wall. threatened, the effect on both nations’ econo- Then, just prior to a scheduled meeting with mies would be devastating. Trade between the Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, Trump Peña Nieto: Diplomatic rift U.S. and Mexico amounts to $580 billion a insisted that he would make Mexico pay for the year, with about 5 million American jobs depend- wall’s construction, with White House spokesman Sean Spicer saying on this exchange. Countless U.S. firms, particularly in the auto ing that could be accomplished by slapping a 20 percent border industry, depend on Mexican labor and products as links in their tax on items imported from Mexico. An affronted Peña Nieto supply chains, and the savings produced by these chains have canceled the meeting, amid “a diplomatic rift of a magnitude not made American products competitive with those made in Asia and seen in decades.” If we start a trade war with Mexico, said Greg Europe. Pulling out of NAFTA would instantly “stall production Grandin in TheNation.com, Americans will suffer, too. Mexico is in factories in the U.S. and Canada,” said The New York Times in our third-biggest trading partner, and our consumers will pick up an editorial. It would also push up the prices Americans pay for the cost of any tariff imposed on its products. Trump’s new slogan cars, fresh vegetables, fruits, and other products. should be “Make Avocados Expensive Again.” Trump may not care, said Mona Charen in NationalReview.com. Spicer later clarified his threat to impose a 20 percent import tax, He seems to harbor a deep and irrational “need to insult and said Eric Levitz in NYMag.com, saying he was referring to long- humiliate Mexico.” To indulge that need, and to fulfill his nativist standing Republican proposals for a border adjustment tax on all pledges to his supporters, the president may well decide to enact imports. Similar to the value-added tax used in most European reckless trade policies, regardless of the repercussions. Trump and countries, a BAT does raise the price of imports, but would also his supporters should be careful what they wish for, said Elvia Diaz promote a stronger dollar. Since a stronger dollar buys more for- in AZCentral.com. If the president does initiate a trade war, or pull eign goods, neither U.S. consumers nor Mexican suppliers would out of NAFTA, the Mexican economy will crater. The economic notice a big difference. Even some Democrats are pro-BAT, said desperation that follows will produce a huge influx of “poor, dis- Dylan Matthews in Vox.com, because it would generate $1.2 tril- placed Mexican workers, and believe me—there won’t be a wall lion in revenue over a decade, and make it harder for corporations tall enough to keep them out.”

Good week for: Only in America Boring but important Rebirth, after a South African man awoke after spending 21 hours QLawmakers in Mississippi in a locked morgue refrigerator, with his cries for help so frighten- Trump picks are advancing legislation that ing workers they called the police to protect them from an irate new GSA head would withdraw accredita- President Donald Trump has tion from K-12 schools that “ghost.” The man had been sent to the morgue after an asthma attack seemed to leave him without a heartbeat. replaced the acting head of the refuse to fly the state flag, federal agency tasked with de- which is emblazoned with the Proving your point, after Gregg Phillips, a voter-fraud activist who ciding whether he is in viola- Confederate battle emblem. claims to have proof that 3 million people voted illegally in the tion of his lease for the Trump Many schools in predomi- 2016 election, was found to be registered in three states—Alabama, International Hotel in Wash- nately black communities such Texas, and Mississippi. “Why would I know or care?” Phillips said. ington, D.C., and installed as Jackson don’t fly the flag Trading your brother for a dog, after Cambridge University his own appointee. Norman because they see Confederate researchers found that children get more satisfaction from their Dong had become acting symbols as tributes to racism. administrator of the General Bill supporters say they simply relationships with family pets than they do from those with their own siblings. Dogs don’t taunt you, and they don’t steal your stuff. Services Administration at the want to ensure that all state time of Trump’s inauguration, laws are properly enforced. Bad week for: but eight hours later, Trump QA U.S. Army vet in Indiana Optimism, after the scientists behind the Doomsday Clock, a replaced Dong with Denver- based GSA official Tim Horne, has caused a furor by hanging symbolic measure of the impending likelihood of the end of civi- a dummy of President Trump who coordinated the agency’s from a tree in front of his lization, set it at 11:57:30—closer to midnight than it’s been since transition with the Trump home. Mike Cunningham’s 1953. Scientists cited President Trump’s statements on nuclear pro- team. The GSA manages the display shows the president liferation and climate change. federally owned Old Post Of- holding a Russian flag, along- Being too popular, after Starbucks claimed a recent dip in sales, fice building where the Trump side a sign calling Trump “a which led to a drop in stock prices, was caused by “congestion” at International Hotel is housed, disgrace to America.” A neigh- its stores. Lines are so long, the company said, that some custom- and Democrats have asked the borhood group says the effigy ers are leaving without buying anything. agency to terminate the hotel’s “crossed a line,” but police say lease, citing a provision that National security, they can’t interfere with Cun- after the U.S.’s bacon reserves plunged to their states no elected official shall ningham’s free speech rights. lowest levels since 1957 because of soaring demand. Pork belly “benefit from the contract.”

prices jumped 20 percent over three weeks. AP

THE WEEK February 10, 2017 The U.S. at a glance ... NEWS 7

San Francisco Standing Rock Sioux Philadelphia Sanctuary city fight: Reservation, S.D. Obamacare woes: Republican San Francisco filed Pipeline decision near? The U.S. Army lawmakers were caught a lawsuit this week Corps of Engineers has been ordered on tape last week fret- challenging President to approve the controversial final sec- ting about the political Trump’s execu- tion of the Dakota Access Pipeline, two and economic costs tive order to strip Republican lawmakers claimed this of repealing the so-called sanctu- week. Sen. John Hoeven and Rep. Kevin Affordable Care ary cities of federal Cramer, both of North Dakota, said the Act, in a secret funding—arguing acting secretary of the Army had told the recording made Rep. Tom McClintock that Trump’s mea- corps to grant an easement so that the during a GOP sure was unconsti- 1,172-mile pipeline could run under Lake policy retreat in Philadelphia. In the tape, tutional and “un- Oahe, located half a mile upstream from leaked to The Washington Post, Rep. Pete Rally at City Hall American.” Trump’s the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. Sessions (R-Texas) can be heard warn- order, signed last week, targets more Standing Rock members say the pipeline ing his colleagues that one of the GOP’s than 400 cities and counties nationwide threatens their water supply, and they Obamacare alternatives, a refundable tax that have adopted policies protecting mounted a months-long protest that drew credit, would not make policies afford- the country’s 11 million undocumented thousands of tribal members and enviable for middle-class families. Rep. John immigrants from deportation. The order ronmentalists last year. Former President Faso (R-N.Y.) said Republicans were instructs the departments of Justice and Barack Obama ordered the corps to look “walking into a gigantic political trap” Homeland Security to withhold “federal elsewhere for the pipeline’s final segment, by proposing to strip Planned Parenthood funds, except as mandated by law,” from but President Trump has signed a memo of federal funding, while Rep. Tom those communities. In San Francisco, instructing the agency to approve the sec- McClintock (R-Calif.) told his colleagues where police are prohibited from tion “in an expedited manner.” to tread carefully—saying that the giving certain information about health-care market they create undocumented immigrants to will be called “Trumpcare,” federal immigration officers, and “Republicans will own that federal money amounts to that lock, stock, and bar- $1.2 billion in health-care and rel.” Organizers said the tape nutrition funding and other was made by an “unauthorized grants, say city officials. New person” who pretended to be a law- York City, Chicago, and other maker’s wife, and said the U.S. Capitol sanctuary jurisdictions have also Police were investigating. vowed to fight the order. Washington, D.C. Irving, Texas Cabinet battle: Senate Transgender Scouts: Breaking with more Republicans took the than 100 years rare step this week of of tradition, suspending com- the Boy Scouts mittee rules of America Money, Miss. to advance this week Emmett Till revelation: The woman at the nomina- Hatch: ‘Pathetic’ Dems announced it the center of the notorious 1955 Emmett tions of two would accept Till lynching now admits she made up of President Trump’s Cabinet picks, members claims that Till made physical and verbal after Democrats boycotted votes for two Transgender boys welcome. based on advances toward her, a historian revealed days. GOP lawmakers on the Senate their gender this week. Till was 14 years old and Finance Committee hoped to vote on identity—allowing transgender boys to visiting relatives in Money, Miss., when Trump’s Treasury secretary nominee, join the organization for the first time. he was killed for allegedly whistling at Steve Mnuchin, and Health and Human Until now, the 2.3 million–strong group Carolyn Bryant, a 21-year-old white Services nominee Rep. Tom Price has accepted members based only on woman. Bryant’s husband, Roy Bryant, (R-Ga.), so that the nominations could the gender listed on a birth certificate. and his half-brother, J.W. Milam, were proceed to the full Senate. But commit- “That approach is no longer sufficient,” accused of kidnapping Till, torturing him, tee rules require the attendance of at the organization said in a statement. Boy and shooting him in the head. During least one member of each party for a Scouts groups will now accept mem- Bryant and Milam’s murder trial, Carolyn vote, and Democrats refused to attend— bers based on the gender stated on their Bryant testified that Till had grabbed her accusing Mnuchin of misleading law- application forms. The announcement and made vulgar claims about being with makers about his bank’s use of robosign- came months after an 8-year-old trans- white women. Bryant and Milam were ing in home foreclosures, and claiming gender boy in Secaucus, N.J., said he was acquitted by a jury after little more than that Price wasn’t honest about receiving expelled from his local Cub Scout pack, an hour. But in a 2007 interview with discounted stock in a biotech firm. following complaints from other boys’ historian Timothy Tyson, who has just Calling Democrats “pathetic,” commit- parents. The decision was the latest of sev- published a book on the case, Bryant con- tee chairman Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) eral LGBT policy changes by the Scouts, fessed that her testimony “wasn’t true,” suspended the rules. All 14 Republicans which has also recently lifted bans on gay adding “nothing that boy did could ever in the room then voted to advance the

AP, Newscom, James Estrin/The New York Times/Redux, Newscom Times/Redux, York New Estrin/The James Newscom, AP, youth members and pack leaders. justify what happened to him.” nominations.

THE WEEK February 10, 2017 8 NEWS The world at a glance ...

Vienna Quebec City Burqa ban: Austria’s coalition government has Mosque slaughter: A included a burqa ban in a raft of new measures university student whom aimed at undermining the rise of the far-right, classmates described anti-Islam Freedom Party. The policies proposed as a far-right extremist by the ruling center-left Social Democratic Party opened fire at a Quebec and center-right Austrian People’s Party would City mosque during eve- ban full-face veils such as the burqa and the ning prayers this week, niqab—worn by about 150 women in Austria— killing at least six people from public spaces such as courts and schools. Verboten garb? and injuring 19 more in Canadians mourn the murdered. Asylum seekers would also be made to sign an “integration agree- what the government is ment,” and workers from eastern Europe would be restricted calling a terrorist attack. Witnesses said the suspected gunman, from full access to the labor market. The Freedom Party has been Alexandre Bissonnette, a 27-year-old French Canadian student, surging in support in recent months, and only narrowly lost the shouted “Allahu akbar!”—or “God is great!”—during his presidential election in December. rampage at the Islamic Cultural Center. Bissonnette fled in his car but was caught about 12 miles away after calling 911 and telling police that he “felt bad” and wanted to kill himself, according to the Quebec City daily Le Soleil. Classmates at Laval University said Bissonnette was a loner with nationalist, misogynist, and anti-immigrant views; on his Facebook page, he declared support for U.S. President Trump and Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s far right. Bissonnette faces six charges of murder and five of attempted murder. Thousands of Canadians attended vigils held at mosques and churches across the nation for the victims—who included a grocer, a computer scientist, and a college professor. “We will grieve with you. We will defend you,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Canadian Muslims. “We will love you and we will stand with you.” About 1 million of Canada’s 36 million people are Muslim.

Amsterdam Euthanasia controversy: A Dutch doctor has been formally rep- rimanded but will not be charged with a crime for a euthanasia procedure that went horribly wrong. The unnamed doctor’s patient, a woman in her 70s, had made a living will at the onset of her dementia, saying she would like to be allowed to die “when the time was right.” When the patient’s condition substan- tially deteriorated, the doctor—after consulting the dementia suf- ferer’s family—slipped a sleeping drug into her coffee without her knowledge and then began a lethal IV. When the patient woke up and began to struggle, saying “I don’t want to die” several times, the doctor asked the family to hold her down so the procedure could be completed. Dutch authorities said the doctor “acted on good faith” but should have stopped the procedure once the patient resisted.

La Montañita, Colombia Rio de Janeiro Cacao, not coca: Farmers in land formerly controlled by the left- Billionaire jailed: Fugitive tycoon ist rebel group FARC will get monthly stipends of $350 to stop Eike Batista, once Brazil’s richest growing coca, marijuana, and opium poppy and start growing man, returned to Brazil this week food crops instead, the Colombian government said this week. to be arrested over allegations that he paid “The peace advances will transform the fields,” said President $16.5 million in bribes to the former gover- Batista: Busted Juan Manuel Santos. nor of Rio de Janeiro state. Police raided his “Communities will thrive Rio mansion last week as part of an investigation into a massive with alternative products.” kickback scheme involving much of Brazil’s political and business FARC, the Revolutionary elite. They found a Lamborghini sports car parked in Batista’s Armed Forces of Colombia, living room, but not their suspect, who had fled to New York funded its decades-long insur- City hours earlier. Batista later came back and turned himself in, gency through control of the saying he wanted to clear his name. Because he has no college cocaine trade. The first wave degree, he was sent to a filthy, overcrowded prison instead of a of the new program will seek better-maintained facility for white-collar criminals. Batista was to eliminate 200 square miles worth $35 billion in 2012, but his fortune had dropped to less

A coca grower and his crop of coca fields. than $1 billion by last year, after his oil fields failed to produce. Getty (2), Newscom, Getty

THE WEEK February 10, 2017 The world at a glance ... NEWS 9

Moscow Avdiyivka, Ukraine U.S. ‘spies’ arrested: Two of Moscow’s top cybersecurity officials Russia presses war: A day after have been charged with treason for passing state secrets to the President Trump spoke by phone with CIA, Russian media reported this week. Sergei Mikhailov, head of Russian President Vladimir Putin, cybersecurity at the FSB, the KGB successor agency, disappeared Moscow-backed separatists began last year and was rumored to have been taken from a meeting pounding eastern Ukraine with heavy with a bag over his head. His deputy, Dmitry Dokuchaev, a former shelling. Government-controlled cit- hacker who joined the secret service to avoid prison, and Ruslan ies, including Avdiyivka, near the rebel Stoyanov, an executive with cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab, are stronghold of Donetsk, came under also reportedly under arrest for treason. The Kremlin has denied intense fire, knocking out power and Residents line up for food. any link between the arrests and the Russian hacking of the U.S. water to thousands of civilians as night- Democratic Party. It was revealed last week that former FSB chief time temperatures dropped to minus 18. At least 10 people were Oleg Erovinkin, who is believed to have helped a former British killed and dozens wounded. Associated Press reporters saw rebels spy compile a lurid dossier on President Trump’s alleged links with using Grad missile launchers, which were banned by the 2015 Russia, was found dead in the back of his car in December. Trump Minsk cease-fire agreement. The outbreak of violence is “another has called the unsubstantiated claims in the dossier “fake news.” reason for the soonest possible resumption of dialogue and coop- eration between Russia and America,” said a Kremlin spokesman.

Tehran Missile test: U.S. officials condemned Iran as “provocative” and “irresponsible” this week after the Islamic Republic tested a ballistic missile—its first such test since President Trump took office. The nuclear deal agreed to last year between Iran, the U.S., and other nations does not include Dehghan: Butt out, U.S. a ban on missile tests, but a U.N. Security Council resolution adopted in 2015 “calls on” Iran to not launch any missiles capable of carrying nuclear weap- ons, including ballistic missiles. Iran’s defense minister, Hossein Dehghan, rejected criticism of this week’s test, saying, “We will not let any foreigner meddle with our defense issues.” Last year, Iran test-fired two ballistic missiles, one of them inscribed with the phrase “Israel must be wiped out” in Hebrew. Lahore, Pakistan Jihadist leader arrested: Bowing to U.S. pressure, Pakistani authorities have put the alleged mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks back under house arrest. Hafiz Saeed was first detained following the bloodshed in Mumbai, when 10 members of his banned Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group killed 166 people in a four-day rampage in the city. Six months later, Pakistan set Saeed free, saying there was not enough evidence to charge him. The U.S. put a $10 million bounty on Saeed in 2012, but Pakistani authorities let him live openly in Lahore, running a charity believed to be a front for militants. Saeed blamed his arrest this week on foreign powers, saying, “The orders have come via India and the U.S.” Saeed: Arrested again Brussels EU sees Trump as danger: European Union President Donald Tusk Yakla, Yemen says President Trump is a threat to European security, just like Trump’s first combat death: A U.S. raid to capture intelligence Russia and Islamist terrorism. “The change in Washington puts the from an al Qaida compound in Yemen degenerated into a chaotic European Union in a difficult situation, with the new administra- firefight this week, claiming the lives of two Americans: Navy tion seeming to put into question the last 70 years SEAL William Owens and the 8-year-old daughter of Anwar al- of American foreign policy,” Tusk, a former Polish Awlaki, a U.S.-born jihadist killed in a 2011 drone strike. It was prime minister, wrote in a letter to EU member the first counterterrorism mission authorized by President Trump; states. European leaders have expressed dismay President Obama had rejected it as too risky. Pentagon officials at Trump’s support for the U.K.’s decision to said U.S. forces came under intense fire as they descended on the leave the bloc, and they fear his support for village of Yakla, and helicopter gunships and Harrier jets were NATO, the main guarantor of European called in to pound the militants. A $70 million Osprey crashed security, is tepid. Trump has criticized during the mission and had to be bombed to stop it from fall- rules set by the EU—which he calls “the ing into enemy hands. Yemeni officials said the operation killed consortium”—for hampering construc- 16 civilians, including al-Awlaki’s daughter, Nawar. The U.S. said

Getty (2), Newscom (2) (2), Newscom Getty Tusk: Worried tion work at his Irish golf course. most or all of those killed were militants.

THE WEEK February 10, 2017 10 NEWS People

Growing up at Neverland Paris Jackson says she had a fairly normal childhood—until her father died, said Brian Hiatt in Rolling Stone. Paris, daughter of the late music legend Michael Jackson, was raised along with her brothers Prince and Blanket on the star’s sprawling Neverland estate—a 2,700-acre family paradise that came with its own amuse- ment park, zoo, and movie theater. Life was shel- tered, but her father was not a permissive parent, insists Jackson, 18. “We couldn’t just go on the rides whenever we wanted to. Like, we had school every single day, and we had to be good. And if we were good, every other weekend or so, we could choose whether we were gonna go to the movie theater or see the animals or whatever.” Michael and the children were very close, and when he died in 2009—when Paris was 11—her world fell apart. She and her brothers were wrenched from the seclusion of Neverland and put in a private school. Paris started hanging out with an older gang and doing drugs, and tried several times to commit suicide before her family switched her to a therapeutic school in Utah. Now, says Paris, “I’m a completely different person. I was crazy. I was completely crazy.” Still, she misses her dad every day. “They always say, ‘Time heals.’ But it really doesn’t. You just get used to it. I live life with the mentality of ‘OK, I lost the only thing that has ever been important to me.’ So going forward, anything bad that happens can’t be nearly as bad as what happened before.” Kidman’s maternal instinct Black Sabbath in church Nicole Kidman has four children—each of them something of a Tony Iommi helped invent heavy metal, said Valentine Low in The miracle, said Louise Gannon in the Mail on Sunday (U.K.). She Times (U.K.). As the guitarist for Black Sabbath, Iommi wrote killer adopted Isabella and Connor, now in their 20s, during her 10-year riffs for songs about Satanism, drugs, and the Devil. So his latest marriage to Tom Cruise, after their efforts to get pregnant proved work is quite a departure. Iommi, 68, has created a choral piece in vain. Sunday Rose, 8, was conceived naturally with Kidman’s inspired by Psalm 133. The composition, entitled “How Good It second husband, country singer Keith Urban; their youngest, Is,” had its premiere this month at a cathedral in the U.K. “It’s a 6-year-old Faith Margaret, was carried by a surrogate. All of which has made the actress something of an expert on both mother- bit different than Sabbath,” he allows. The words “are based on hood and infertility. “You go through heartbreak again and again, the psalm, then we recorded the choir in the cathedral, which has and then you start to tell yourself it might never happen,” she gorgeous acoustics.” The pious subject matter may seem ironic, says. “And then at 41 I became a mother. After so many years of given that Black Sabbath was often accused of promoting black trying, it was so against the odds. We went through a surrogacy magic. But that, says Iommi, was a misunderstanding. “People with my second daughter because we wanted another child so used to think we were Satanists, but we weren’t. The song s were much it hurt. I felt my chances of conceiving again were slimmer the opposite—they were all about the dangers of black magic.” and slimmer. And then we got Faith.” Now, at 49, Kidman can’t As he’s gotten older, his tastes in music have changed; these days, help hoping for one more baby. “I still have the faintest hope he leans toward easy listening. “I have albums by Frank Sinatra, that something might happen to me this year,” she admits. “My there’s quite a bit of jazz, I like the Carpenters, that sort of stuff. grandmother gave birth to my mother at 49! I would be beyond At the moment I’ve been listening to a lot of Doris Day.” happy. Children are the joy of my life.”

out that Guthrie just signed a five-year around her backyard, screaming that her contract. Insiders say NBC chairman Andy mother was a “witch” and the world was Lack—who also poached Greta Van Susteren “shattering.” The Sixth Sense star agreed QMegyn Kelly is poised to take over an hour of the Today show amid rumors from right-leaning Fox—plans to use Kelly to be transported to Cedars-Sinai Medical NBC is grooming her to eventually to make a philosophical shift at the network Center and said later she’d been informed supplant Savannah Guthrie as a co- and its cable outlet, MSNBC. “It seems the she’d been given GHB. “This is a lesson to all host of the morning institution. To network wants to take a more conservative young women out there,” Barton said. “Be make way for the former Fox News tone,” says another source. (An NBC rep aware of your surroundings.” says Lack is only interested in “more good star, NBC has canceled Today’s QKim Kardashian may never reclaim most 9 a.m. segment, which featured Al journalism.”) At Fox, meanwhile, Kelly’s of the $5 million in jewelry she lost in Oc- Roker and Tamron Hall; Kelly will combatively pro-Trump replacement, Tucker tober when a gang allegedly broke into the either take over their slot, or swap Carlson, has nearly doubled her ratings reality star’s Paris residence and robbed her with Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford QMischa Barton says someone spiked her at knifepoint. Accused ringleader Aomar Ait at 10 a.m. Sources at NBC told the New drink with the “date rape” drug GHB at her Khedache reportedly told police all the pieces York Post that there are rumors within 31st birthday party last week, causing bizarre were me lted down and sold—except Kar- the network that “Megyn would eventu- behavior that led the actress to spend the dashian’s 20-carat diamond ring. “Everyone ally get the lead anchor role on Today, night in a Los Angeles hospital. Sheriff’s was afraid to sell it because it’s a stone that’s pushing Savannah out,” but a network deputies arrived at Barton’s West Hollywood very easily spotted,” said Khedache, who is spokeswoman denied that, and pointed apartment after she’d been seen stumbling one of 10 people charged in the crime. Henny Garfunkel/Redux, Getty, Newscom Getty, Garfunkel/Redux, Henny

THE WEEK February 10, 2017 Briefing NEWS 11 Brexit becomes real Seven months after a divisive referendum, the U.K. will soon launch the process for leaving the European Union.

How has Brexit affected the country? world, including the U.S. May also said Not as badly as many predicted. Before she would “change the basis of Britain’s the historic plebiscite on June 23, the economic model” if Brussels didn’t play “Remain” camp warned that Brexit would ball—a thinly veiled threat to dramatically cause economic chaos: a deep recession, lower corporate taxes in order to entice plummeting stock prices, and skyrocket- big EU-based banks and other companies ing unemployment. But most of those grim to the U.K. If the EU tried to “punish” predictions—labeled “Project Fear” by Britain for leaving, she said, it would be those backing “Leave”—have yet to mate- “an act of calamitous self-harm.” rialize. The United Kingdom’s GDP grew 2 percent over the year, the fastest of any What about the EU? G-7 nation; the London stock market, as Britain is Europe’s second-largest economy, measured by the FTSE 100, ended 2016 at behind Germany, so both sides want to a record high; and unemployment remained work out a deal. But a pain-free Brexit steady. The only economic bombshell was could encourage other EU members to the pound dropping by 18 percent against leave the bloc, so German Chancellor the dollar, from $1.48 to $1.20, before Angela Merkel has warned that Britain recovering slightly in January. “They told us cannot “cherry-pick” the best features of we were doomed,” says Jacob Rees-Mogg, its EU membership and dispense with the a Conservative member of Parliament who rest. Right-wing, Euroskeptic parties are backed Leave. “They have been proved gaining popularity in Germany, France, wrong.” Yet many economists believe and the Netherlands, all of which are Brexit’s true impact will become clear only holding elections this year; these and other May: Will negotiate a ‘hard’ Brexit once the negotiating process has begun. EU members could well hold their own “leave” referenda. If another major country does follow Britain When will that happen? out of Brussels, the EU would almost certainly fall apart—likely Tory Prime Minister Theresa May has pledged to trigger unleashing economic and geopolitical chaos. Article 50—the clause for exiting the 28-member bloc—by the end of March. That will begin a two-year countdown to Britain’s How will it all play out? formal breakaway, during which London and Brussels will attempt This is the first time a nation has left the EU, so it’s uncharted ter- to hammer out the terms of their divorce. May had planned to ritory. Negotiators will be unpacking 43 years’ worth of treaties activate Article 50 without going through Parliament, but Britain’s and agreements, covering thousands of different issues. Will a hard Supreme Court ruled last month that she would require approval border be required between Northern Ireland, which is part of the from both chambers—a ruling that could delay the process. The U.K., and the Republic of Ireland, an EU member? Will Britain justices also determined that the prime minister wasn’t legally pay the £50 billion ($63 billion) “exit bill” the EU is planning on obliged to consult the “devolved,” or national, governments in imposing? Everything is on the table. The final deal will need to be Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales. That decision renewed ratified by Britain’s Parliament, and by all 27 of the EU’s remaining speculation that Scotland, where the public backed “Remain,” members. The negotiations can be extended beyond two years, but might try to break away from the U.K. so it can stay in the EU. only if every EU country agrees. If no deal is approved within the allotted time, all EU laws and treaties What terms does May want? Silver linings for Remainers will automatically cease to apply to Some Britons hoped she would try to After Brexit, many Leave voters felt pangs of the U.K. keep Britain in the EU’s single market— “Bregret.” A poll of 10,000 people in October a “soft” Brexit. But that would undoubt- found that only 1 percent of Remainers regret- Any chance of a do-over? edly have meant adhering to the bloc’s ted their vote, compared with 6 percent of Not really. The Conservative major- rules on freedom of movement, which Leavers, a hypothetical swing big enough to ity in the House of Commons will allow unlimited immigration and travel have reversed the result. But Remainers have almost certainly overcome any efforts among member states—one of the EU nevertheless discovered several silver linings. to block either the triggering of features that motivated many Britons to Britons may soon be able to purchase duty-free Article 50 or the final agreement. The vote to leave. So May has called for a booze and cigarettes when traveling to and House of Lords is largely opposed to “hard” Brexit: a complete withdrawal from Europe, a luxury they are currently denied. Brexit, but the mostly wealthy mem- from the single market, but with a Economic uncertainty has prompted many bers of the unelected upper chamber free-trade deal offering “the greatest companies to rein in their marketing spending, know that overturning the will of the possible access” to it. She said the U.K. causing a drastic and much-welcomed reduc- people would lead to outrage—and tion in junk mail. The U.K. will still be eligible would no longer be subject to freedom reforms to curtail the Lords’ power. for the Eurovision Song Contest, the camp sing- of movement rules or laws made in ing spectacle beloved by British audiences. Best With both Conservatives and Labour the European Court of Justice; vowed of all? Even after Brexit, the EU’s official lan- pledging to press ahead, it appears to guarantee the rights of Britons cur- guage will still be English—a decision, says the that the die has been cast. “There’s rently living in Europe and of Europeans BBC’s Europe editor Katya Adler, that is “much no going back,” says David Davis, in the U.K.; and pledged to strike new to France’s chagrin.” Britain’s Brexit minister. “The point of

AP deals with trading partners around the no return was June 23.”

THE WEEK February 10, 2017 12 NEWS Best columns: The U.S.

“Holocaust denial is alive and well in the highest offices of the United Flirting with States,” said Deborah Lipstadt. To the astonishment of nearly everyone, It must be true... the administration last week issued a statement commemorating Holo- I read it in the tabloids Holocaust caust Remembrance Day that made no mention of the 6 million Jews denial slaughtered in Nazi death camps. Instead, the tribute paid generic lip QAn elderly Texas woman service to the unspecified “innocent people” killed. This was no “rookie and her son had the ride of Deborah Lipstadt mistake” by the new White House. Trump’s spin doctors tripled down a lifetime when a tornado hit TheAtlantic.com on the omission, insisting that this administration “took into account their home, lifted the bathtub all of those who suffered,” providing a link to a story that bemoaned they were hiding in, and the forgotten Holocaust victims, including priests, gypsies, people with put it down in the nearby disabilities, and anarchists. This form of “softcore” Holocaust denial woods. When Charlesetta has a history: Some anti-Semites claim that self-pitying Jews are “‘steal- Williams, 75, and her son ing’ the Holocaust for themselves.” As a matter of historical fact, the saw the twister approaching, they clambered into the tub Nazis built the death camps for the specific purpose of exterminating “a for protection and pulled specific people”—the Jews. So why would the White House deliberately a quilt over themselves. edit Jews out of the Holocaust? Perhaps it’s the work of Trump’s chief Moments later, the pair strategist, Steve Bannon, whose last job was running Breitbart.com. You heard a “boom” and sensed know—the website that panders to the virulently anti-Semitic “alt-right.” they were flying. “I wasn’t looking—I was under that quilt,” Williams said. “I’m a As a conservative, I support many of President Trump’s “bold executive tell you, I don’t wanna ride Isolationism actions” and his Cabinet nominations, said Charles Krauthammer. But through another one.” Trump’s “America First” foreign policy, as described in his inaugural will diminish address, should trouble any American who believes our nation serves Q An a unique role in the world. If we use the U.S. military and our dollars Oregon farmer America to defend Europe, Japan, or South Korea from predatory neighbors, and Charles Krauthammer Trump suggested, we’re suckers. “From this day forward,” he said, “it’s yoga The Washington Post going to be only America First.” By aligning himself with the Charles buff has Lindbergh–led organization that opposed the U.S.’s entry into World combined her two War II, Trump is buying into a “zero sum” view of foreign relations: passions to create a new Don’t let “free rider” nations take advantage of us! This kind of self- exercise craze: goat yoga. ish isolationism “makes America no different from nations that define The classes take place on themselves by a blood-and-soil nationalism.” Throughout our history, Lainey Morse’s Albany farm America has fought to defend free nations from tyranny, including in and resemble a typical yoga our defeat of the Nazis and Japanese in World War II, and of com- session—except that Morse’s munism in the Cold War. The burden has been heavy, but promoting eight goats stroll among liberty and democracy is in our long-term national interest. “Global the participants and climb leadership is what made America great. We abandon it at our peril.” on their backs as they do poses. Goat yoga has proved a huge hit, and the waiting “Paul Ryan is not spineless,” said Jonathan Chait. The Republican list for the class is now more Paul Ryan House speaker is being widely mocked because he “has backed President than 1,200 names long. Trump to the hilt since the election,” despite having repeatedly distanced Morse says the sessions can does have himself from the GOP nominee’s more offensive antics over the past work wonders for people year. After Ryan expressed support for Trump’s travel ban—an idea he struggling with depression principles dismissed as “not conservatism” a few months ago—critics even edited or anxiety. “It’s hard to be sad,” she said, “when there’s Jonathan Chait the Wikipedia invertebrate page to include a photo of the House speaker. baby goats jumping on you.” NYMag.com But in allying himself with the new Republican president, Ryan is being entirely consistent toward his most important principle: “liberating the QA Massachusetts man affluent from the burdens of progressive taxation.” Ryan has often cited attempted to appeal a speed- books by Ayn Rand, George Gilder, and other libertarians as his primary ing ticket last week by claiming in court that the police intellectual influence—books that portray democracy as flawed, because officer’s radar gun had in fact it allows the unworthy masses to “gang up on the rich” and steal their picked up a fast-moving deer, money by taxing it. Since he needs Trump to push through a massive tax not his car. Dennis Sayers cut, Ryan will no longer criticize the irascible president in any substantial was fined $105 after he was way. Now, you may or may not share Ryan’s single-minded obsession clocked going 40 mph in a with cutting top-marginal tax rates, “but it is a belief system.” 30 mph zone. In court, Sayers asked an officer if he was positive that he had captured Viewpoint “Those citizens who fantasize about defying tyranny from within fortified compounds have never understood how liberty is actually threatened in a Sayers’ speeding vehicle and modern bureaucratic state: not by diktat and violence, but by the slow, demoralizing process of not a nearby deer. “You’re corruption and deceit. And the way that liberty must be defended is not with amateur firearms, but not contending the radar with an unwearying insistence upon the honesty, integrity, and professionalism of American institu- picked up the deer?” asked tions and those who lead them. We are living through the most dangerous challenge to the free Judge Peter Doyle. Sayers government of the United States that anyone alive has encountered. What happens next is up to replied that anything is pos- you and me.” David Frum in The Atlantic sible. The fine was upheld. Newscom

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Mutual of America® and Mutual of America Your Retirement Company® are registered service marks of Mutual of America Life Insurance Company, a registered Broker/Dealer. 320 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10022-6839. 14 NEWS Best columns: Europe

FRANCE France’s presidential race has been hit with its first sible misuse of public funds, as well as a separate scandal—and it could be a game changer, said Paul claim that Penelope was given a fictitious magazine Quinio. With the public fed up with the ruling job by a billionaire friend of her husband’s. For an- A boost for Socialist Party, François Fillon, the candidate for other candidate, such a story might be survivable. the center-right Republicans, was widely expected But Fillon has built his political career around his Le Pen’s to win this spring’s vote. But last week, a muckrak- image as “a righteous man, clean, upright, honest,” ing tabloid accused Fillon of paying his wife some and his fall from on high could prove fatal. Fillon chances $540,000 in public money for a no-show job. The was expected to defeat far-right candidate Marine “revelations are devastating.” It’s not illegal for Le Pen—who wants to pull France from the EU— Paul Quinio French politicians to hire relatives, but Le Canard in the second round of the election in May. Now Le Nouvel Observateur Enchainé says it can find no evidence that Penelope he says that if a criminal investigation is opened, he Fillon did any work during her eight years on the will drop out. “Penelope-gate” could well change payroll. State prosecutors are now probing the pos- the course of French, and European, history.

GREECE Greece, the birthplace of democracy, is once again and civil servants, leaving only those he believes showing the world how to live by the rule of law, will slavishly follow his wishes. Extraditing the Standing up said Nikos Konstandaras. Last week, our Su- officers to such a system “would have damaged preme Court ruled against an extradition request not only the standing of Greece’s judiciary but to Turkey for eight Turkish military officers who Ankara the very idea of justice.” The law is under attack claims were involved in July’s coup attempt in throughout the West: British judges who recently for justice Turkey. The soldiers flew by helicopter to Greece ruled against a quick Brexit were called treason- the day after the failed coup and requested asy- ous by critics, and “we can only imagine” how Nikos Konstandaras lum. The officers may well be guilty—we take no U.S. President Donald Trump will react to judicial Kathimerini stand on that issue. But there’s no doubt that they rulings that go against him. Judges will “be on couldn’t possibly get a fair trial in increasingly au- the front line in the battle between justice and thoritarian Turkey. Since the coup attempt, Turk- chaos.” Greek judges have shown the way, by dis- ish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has purged playing “the independence and courage needed to thousands of judges, lawyers, teachers, soldiers, fortify democracy.” Britain: Trump proves to be a divisive ally Now we know “just how desperate the “the uncertain world of post-Brexit British government is to avoid upset- Britain,” we should be glad that ting” the Trump administration, said Trump—a critic of the EU and an Independent.co.uk in an editorial. When admirer of the U.K.—is in the White Prime Minister Theresa May met with House. The president will put the EU President Trump in Washington last “at the back of the queue” for trade week, she tried to reassure the British deals, and us at the front. public that “she was not about to become a poodle to Trump’s rottweiler.” Keep dreaming, said Jonathan Freed- She mildly rebuked Trump for his sup- land in The Guardian. With Britain port for torture, and said Trump had committed to exiting the EU, May told her that he was “100 percent be- needs a favorable trade deal with the hind NATO.” Yet when Trump signed U.S. That makes her an easy mark a “monstrous order” a few hours later for the former real estate mogul—as banning immigrants and travelers from a “house buyer who rashly sold her seven countries— including thousands of old house before she had found a new Britons with dual citizenship—May sud- one.” Trump will press his advan- denly lost her spine. Instead of swiftly tage: He could ask for a relaxation denouncing the ban, she hemmed and Trump and May: Can they sustain the special relationship? of Britain’s environmental and safety hawed before issuing a tepid statement standards to allow the importation of saying she does “not agree with this kind of approach.” The hormone-laced U.S. beef, and demand that the National Health British people showed more courage. More than 1.6 million of Service buy medicine from “overcharging drug companies.” them signed a petition demanding the cancellation of Trump’s state visit to the U.K. later this year, and thousands took to the Trump cares not one jot about a trade deal with Britain, said streets to protest his bigoted travel ban. Paul Mason, also in The Guardian. For him, Britain is “a tool to break up the European Union.” His trade promises are designed Trump might not be the ally we want, but he’s the ally we have, to undermine our ties with Europe, and we will lose our soul in said Tony Parsons in The Sun. Yes, he’s a misogynist and an oaf, the bargain if we ally ourselves with his plan to crush the multi- but we’ve struck deals with far worse people. When our nation lateral global system and replace it with a great-power struggle was “fighting for its life” in World War II, we joined forces with for spheres of influence. Are we going to submit to this “socio- Stalin. We couldn’t afford to care about the Russian dictator’s pathic sex pest” or stand against him? “The entire British politi- morality, we were just “damn glad he was there.” As we enter cal elite has to understand how relentlessly it is being played.” Getty

THE WEEK February 10, 2017 Best columns: International NEWS 15

How they see us: Trapped by Trump’s travel ban President Trump has managed to been exempted, because the U.S. turn “friends, allies, and strangers knows it can “use them as tools” into enemies overnight,” said The to carry out its policy. Daily Star (Lebanon) in an editorial. His executive order banning citizens Finally, a president who recognizes of the Muslim-majority countries that Iran is “part of the problem,” of Iran, Syria, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, said Abdulrahman Al-Rashed Libya, and Yemen from entering in Asharq Al-Awsat (U.K.). The the U.S. for at least 90 days has up- Obama administration insisted that ended thousands of lives. Two gay Iran was “part of the solution.” refugees from Syria, who underwent Trump, by contrast, intends to two years of background checks and “stop the chaos” that Tehran has interviews by U.S. officials, were been spreading, and join Saudi Ara- about to find safety in America: Now bia in fighting terrorists. Trump’s A former Iraqi translator, now barred from the U.S. they are stuck in limbo in Turkey, domestic policies are none of our fearing for their lives. A 12-year-old Yemeni girl about to be concern as long as he helps Arabs in the Middle East. Already, he reunited with her family in the U.S. was turned back and is now has promised to set up a “safe zone for Syrian refugees” inside stranded with her father—an American citizen—in Djibouti, a Syria—something Obama refused to do. country where they know no one. Those are just a few of the roughly 90,000 people affected by the ban, almost certainly Iraq has been humiliated by the ban, said Ali Hussein in Al Mada none of them terrorists, but most of them Muslims. U.S. respect (Iraq). Iraqi translators who risked their lives to help U.S. forces for human rights has been revealed as a farce. “With one stroke fight against Saddam Hussein, al Qaida, and ISIS are rewarded of his pen, Trump has caused the Muslim world to lose faith in with scornful dismissal—our entire populace branded as terror- American values.” ists. Influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said the U.S. should remove its citizens from those countries first, while the Iraqi Par- This vicious act was aimed at Iran, said Faramarz Asghari in liament has asked the government to slap a retaliatory visa ban Siyasat-e Ruz (Iran). Look at the list of countries: Syria, Yemen, on Americans. Yes, that’ll show them! Hollywood’s “Emma Stone and Iraq are places where Iran is ascendant, where the U.S. “has will no longer be allowed to take her vacations in Habbaniyah,” tried to dominate and failed.” Libya, Sudan, and Somalia were and Bill Gates will be denied that big Microsoft partnership he added because the U.S. wants to “increase its military presence” was about to offer us. “Why not reject the thousands of asylum in those African nations. And Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, two claims Americans are making here, while we’re at it?” Iraq simply countries that actually have exported terrorists to the U.S., have has no leverage over the U.S. We’ve been used and discarded.

President Trump is playing a dangerous game in to inflame the street,” and they would portray the ISRAEL the Middle East, said Alex Fishman. For nearly embassy move as “the return of the Crusaders.” 70 years, the U.S. has held off recognizing Jerusalem Jordan, which is in charge of the disputed Temple U.S. embassy as Israel’s capital, because the Palestinians also claim Mount area holy to both Jews and Muslims, it as their capital, and any two-state solution will would have no choice but to protest. And given relocation have to involve shared or international custody. But that 10 percent of Jordan’s people support radical during the presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly Islamist movements, its very regime could be threat- looms promised to move the U.S.’s embassy in Israel from ened. The unrest could “stimulate the street in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem if elected—effectively recog- Egypt as well.” There is no peaceful outcome here. Alex Fishman nizing Jerusalem as Israel’s alone. His allies now say Yet the Israeli government, rather than discouraging Yedioth Ahronoth he intends to honor that pledge, no matter what the Trump, “is doing everything in its power to make consequences. Hamas and fundamentalist Muslims the embassy affair ignite a big fire.” With Trump’s among Israel’s Arabs are “looking for any chance help, we are “shooting ourselves in the foot.”

NEW ZEALAND New Zealand has given its most precious gift to was admitted “under a special clause” that lets the the billionaire Peter Thiel, said The Dominion Post immigration minister bestow citizenship on “any Are we in an editorial. The PayPal co-founder and Trump exceptional person.” The argument was that “as a supporter apparently became a citizen here in 2011, rich investor and charitable donor, he would bring for sale to although most of us just found that out last week. special benefits” to this land. So far, though, all he How did he qualify? Our green and pleasant land seems to have done with his status is buy up prime the ultrarich? attracts throngs of would-be immigrants, and New real estate on Lake Wanaka. That’s particularly Zealand tends to be particularly selective. We re- troubling, since New Zealand’s main resource is Editorial quire potential New Zealanders not only to possess its beautiful land. “This is a small country, and the The Dominion Post particular skills but also “to show a real commit- billionaires of the world could buy and sell it many ment to this country” by living here for five years. times over” were we to allow them unfettered ac- But the German-American Thiel, while he does cess to our real estate market. “Our citizenship

Newscom own a mansion here, didn’t do that. Instead, he should not be simply for sale to the highest bidder.”

THE WEEK February 10, 2017 16 NEWS Talking points

Noted Bannon: The power behind the throne QPresident Donald Trump Steve Bannon has quickly become Christian civilization as under mortal threat surpassed 50 percent “one of the world’s most powerful from unassimilated immigrants and radical disapproval this week after people,” said Zack Beauchamp in Islam—threats he believes a decadent, secular just eight days in office— Vox.com. Until last year, the former West hasn’t taken seriously. What is such a by far the fastest of any Goldman Sachs banker ran the extreme xenophobic ideologue doing on the National president in recent history. right-wing website Breitbart.com , home Security Council? said David Rothkopf For Ronald Reagan, it took of the white nationalist “alt-right.” After in The Washington Post. Bannon’s 727 days to reach 50 per- stepping in to help run Donald Trump’s seven-year stint in the Navy 35 cent disapproval; George faltering presidential campaign, Ban- years ago hardly qualifies him to H.W. Bush, 1,336 days; Bill non was elevated to White House advise the president on national Clinton, 573 days; George W. Bush, 1,205 days; and chief strategist—and has already security issues. Incredibly, Trump Barack Obama, 936 days. pulled off “a power grab” that’s has given Bannon a more pow- Vox.com made him Trump’s most influential erful NSC role than the chair- adviser. Bannon played a major man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff QEvery month, Mexicans role in crafting the president’s Defender of Christian civilization and the director of national living in the U.S. send aggressively populist inaugural intelligence—who will hence- $2 billion across the bor- speech, and was the “driving force” behind the forth only attend council meetings when “their der to their families. More controversial travel ban and other executive specific expertise is seen to be required.” than 6 million Mexicans, orders. He’s also led the administration’s war on or about 7 percent of the journalists, telling the media to “keep its mouth No doubt about it: “Bannon is the central force adult population, benefit from such remittances, shut.” And in an unprecedented move for a shaping Donald Trump’s presidency,” said which collectively account political operative, Bannon was last week given Adrian Carasquillo in BuzzFeed.com. But can he for nearly 3 percent of the a full seat on the National Security Council, the retain the mercurial Trump’s trust? Bannon once country’s economy. president’s key advisory group on foreign policy. compared himself to Thomas Cromwell, noting FiveThirtyEight.com that Henry VIII’s influential adviser had helped Bannon is a deeply alarming character—a true “usher in the English Reformation” by “giving QGeorge Orwell’s dysto- radical, said Heather Digby Parton in Salon force to Henry’s declarations.” Trump, however, pian novel 1984 soared .com. Only last summer, he described Trump doesn’t like his aides to get too much credit or to the top of the Amazon as a “blunt instrument” for achieving Ban- attention, and won’t be happy people are starting best- non’s own aims: to “blow everything up” and to sarcastically call his chief strategist “President seller list after White “destroy the existing social and political order.” Bannon.” Don’t forget: “Cromwell was executed House aide Why? In interviews, Bannon has described for treason by a fickle king.” Kellyanne Conway used the ‘Calexit’: California considers secession phrase “alterna- Has President Trump finally pushed Californians tionary, defensive crouch.” Calexit might gratify tive facts” over the edge? said Lauren Evans in Jezebel.com. liberals who long for “ideological purity,” said to defend “With a GDP roughly the size of France” and Conor Friedersdorf in the Los Angeles Times, but the Trump one of the most progressive social agendas in the it would “be a disaster for progressive values.” administration’s disagree- country, Californians have long contemplated Without California, “blue America would lose its ment with press reports. “unshackling” themselves from conservative states biggest source of electoral votes,” while Califor- USA Today in the South and the Great Plains. Last week, the nia’s profound political and cultural influence on Golden State took a step toward this fantasy by the rest of the U.S. would be severely diminished. The share of American Q giving the Yes California Independence group per- workers in unions fell to a record low in 2016. About mission to collect signatures for a ballot initiative Don’t worry, because Calexit will never hap- 10.7 percent of workers that would allow California to officially secede pen, said Ed Kilgore in NYMag.com. Even if were union members last from the U.S. One-third of Californians already Californians voted yes, they’d need two-thirds year, down from 11.1 per- support “Calexit”—and for good reason, says Yes of both houses of Congress and three-fourths of cent in 2015 and from California founder Louis Marinelli. Californians the states to approve of their departure from the more than 20 percent in rejected Trump by a 2-to-1 margin, yet must now union. “The only alternative, unilateral seces- the early 1980s. swallow policies we find abhorrent, including sion, was tried in 1861…and it did not work out The Wall Street Journal his crackdown on immigration and rollback of well.” Still, maybe conservatives and progressives climate change regulations. “America is a sinking should go their separate ways, said Will Rahn in Since 9/11, an average of Q ship,” says Marinelli, “and the strongest position CBSNews.com. The gulf between red and blue nine Americans per year states keeps widening, and half the country thinks have been killed by Islamic for California to take is one on its own lifeboat.” terrorists on U.S. soil. That “the other half wants to destroy all that’s best compares with 12,843 How the worm has turned, said John Fund in about America, and vice versa.” National elec- killed per year in gun NationalReview.com. “Liberals used to hate tions have become an exercise in trying to control homicides and 37,000 who secession”—but only when red states like Texas or punish the “enemy”—by forcing gay marriage die in auto accidents. wanted to escape President Obama’s liberal on red states, or taking Obamacare away from CNN.com overreach. It didn’t take long under Trump’s blue states. “Why not just break up?” We should

presidency for the Left to retreat to its own “reac- all give that question serious thought. Newscom

THE WEEK February 10, 2017 Talking points NEWS 17

Pro-life march: A growing optimism Wit & After four decades on the defen- moment of conception. “Some- sive, “pro-life activists are finally times a deal with the devil Wisdom feeling a sense of hope,” said pays off, big league.” If these “Behind every failure there Emma Green in TheAtlantic.com. marchers really cared about is an opportunity someone Last week, several hundred thou- life, said Liz Plank in Vox.com, wishes they missed.” Lily Tomlin, sand anti-abortion demonstrators they would march against the quoted in People.com amassed in Washington, D.C., for Obamacare repeal, which will “If I don’t go in to work the March for Life, held annually deprive millions of lifesaving a little scared, I don’t have since the Supreme Court’s 1973 health care, or looming cuts any interest in it.” Roe v. Wade decision upheld to CHIP, a federal insurance Mary Tyler Moore, abortion rights. This year’s march program that serves 8 million quoted in USAToday.com “If everyone is was more celebratory than ever— ‘Life is winning in America.’ low-income kids. Why don’t thanks to the election of Donald pro-lifers ever show concern for thinking alike, then some- Trump, who vows to defund Planned Parenthood “children who are already living”? body isn’t thinking.” General George S. Patton, and nominate pro-life conservatives to the court. quoted in HuffingtonPost.com The staunchly pro-life Vice President Mike Pence That’s an old fallacy, said Margot Cleveland in “Even though you can’t told cheering marchers that “life is winning in TheFederalist.com. Most pro-lifers are conserva- expect to defeat the absur- America,” and evangelicals present described tives who do not believe that “government is dity of the world, you must Trump as “the most pro-life president in the his- better at meeting people’s needs” than charity or make the attempt. That’s tory of the republic.” the private sector. Liberals insist that unless we morality, that’s religion, “protest every worldly wrong,” we have no right that’s art, that’s life.” Trump is “the religious right’s Trojan horse,” said to oppose slaughtering unborn children. Liberals Folk singer Phil Ochs, quoted in BuzzFeed.com Michelle Goldberg in The New York Times. Fail- are on now on the defensive on abortion—and ing to nominate one of their own, Christian con- for good reason, said Rebecca Hagelin in The “Democracy, in its essence and genius, is imaginative servatives gambled on a “profane, thrice-married Washington Times. A recent Gallup poll shows love for and identification Manhattan sybarite”: Trump won 81 percent of 53 percent of Millennials believe abortion should with a community white evangelicals, “more than born-again George be illegal in all or most cases. Having “grown with which, much of the W. Bush” ever did. Trump is making good on his up in a world where 3-D ultrasounds show the time and in many ways, promises to them, filling his administration with preborn yawning and stretching and sucking their one may be in profound culture warriors like Health and Human Services little thumbs,” young people don’t view them as disagreement.” nominee Tom Price, who co-sponsored House meaningless clumps of cells. Soon, our nation will Novelist Marilynne Robinson, quoted in LitHub.com bills granting personhood status to zygotes at the be able to proclaim, “Life has won.” “Those who have talent must hug it, embrace it, nur- ture it, and share it lest it be Trump’s TV habit: Too focused on ‘the shows’? taken away from you as fast as it was loaned to you.” For decades, Donald Trump “spent hours and at him for his TV habits, Trump was signing “a Frank Sinatra, quoted in the hours each week watching cable news shows,” raft of executive orders to undo Barack Obama’s Belfast Telegraph said Philip Bump in The Washington Post, legacy,” restricting taxpayer dollars for overseas “We can easily forgive a eagerly hunting mentions of his own name. Now abortions, canceling the Trans-Pacific Partner- child who is afraid of the that TV provides “an endless buffet of com- ship trade deal, ordering construction of a wall dark; the real tragedy of mentary” about his favorite topic, Trump seems at the Mexican border, and prodding CEOs to life is when men are unable “to keep from gorging.” According to invest in American workers. Who cares whether afraid of the light.” a wave of leaks from inside the White House, he watches TV or issues silly tweets, if he’s getting Plato, quoted in MontrealGazette.com Trump’s own aides portray the new president as the job done? an undisciplined, easily bored man who turns to cable TV for hours every day—to obsessively The job is being done in a hurried, impulsive Poll watch monitor proof of his own popularity, and to manner—largely because Trump has such a short QBy an 84-13% margin, search for threats to his fragile ego. The president attention span, said Peter Baker in The New York Americans say Congress begins his day with several hours of cable news Times. Take Trump’s executive action to build his should not repeal the Af- and opinion shows, and ends it with hours of promised wall. When critics taunted the president fordable Care Act until there Fox News—often pausing to tweet an enraged on TV and social media about who would pay is a replacement plan in response or to echo policy ideas. “The picture for it, he began issuing new pronouncements place. Only 16% of voters we’re getting,” said Paul Waldman, also in The about an import tax, causing a major diplomatic want President Trump and Washington Post, is of a TV-obsessed, narcissis- schism with Mexico. At least four times last congressional Republicans tic president whose aides view him “like a child week, Trump issued policy pronouncements on to repeal all of the Afford- whose disturbing behavior has to be managed.” Twitter after watching “the shows,” including able Care Act. 96% of Ameri- a threat to “send in the Feds” to stop Chicago’s can voters, including 91% of Republicans, say it is “very” That’s absurd, said Eddie Scarry in Washington epidemic of gang gun violence, just minutes after or “somewhat” important Examiner.com. If Trump spent all day watching Fox’s Bill O’Reilly suggested he do just that. Do that health insurance be af- TV and tweeting, how did he already accom- Americans really want their president to be mak- fordable for all Americans. plish so much of what he promised in his first ing major policy decisions based on “the chyrons Quinnipiac University

Newscom 10 days in office? While journalists were sniping on his television screen”?

THE WEEK February 10, 2017 THE WEEK | SPECIAL REPORT: FUTURE TECH

recent holiday season, when Amazon sold another 10 million Echo speakers. Analysts say that beyond the increasing popularity of home assistants, voice-activation technology on smartphones is growing rapidly. Tech research firm Gartner predicts that 20 percent of smartphone interac- tions will occur through AI assistants by 2019, and by 2020, the majority of all tech devices will be designed to work with “minimal or zero touch”—just voice. What else will voice control be used for? Smart gadgets for the home that you can speak to as if they were virtual servants. This year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas saw a proliferation of smart gadgets designed to sync up with voice-activated assistants, including laundry machines, lightbulbs, showerheads, door locks, and air purifiers. LG’s smart refrigerator, for example, comes with Amazon’s Alexa built in, which means consumers can order groceries via Amazon Fresh just by talking to the fridge. Gadget makers envision a fully connected future smart home that will respond to your every command. Automobiles are another natural fit for hands-free, voice-activated technology. Using Google Assistant, Hyundai is integrating voice- control features into some vehicles that will allow drivers Talking to our devices to lock the doors on their car or start the engine. As voice technology matures, we won’t need What are the limitations? Though AI assistants can appear to be eerily intelligent, they touch screens and keyboards to send commands. can’t yet engage in meaningful, extended conversations, or think creatively. So to humanize their AI creations, tech companies are How does voice technology work? trying to infuse them with their own personalities. Google has Computer dictation programs have been around for decades, but hired writers from Pixar and The Onion to craft jokes and witty in recent years, voice-activated technology has advanced by leaps responses for its Assistant technology. Microsoft employs script- and bounds, thanks to dramatic strides in artificial intelligence that writers, including children’s novelists. But truly creative artificial have made computers much better at understanding the nuances intelligence is probably decades away. Until then, machines can of human speech. AI-powered personal assistants like Apple’s Siri only respond with what they’ve been programmed to say. “A lot and Amazon’s Alexa can now answer trivia questions, list appoint- of work on the team goes into how to make Alexa the likable per- ments on your calendar, or order pizza when asked, thanks to son people want to have in their homes,” says Daren Gill, Alexa’s “deep learning” techniques, in which software is trained to suss director of product management. out meaning and context from millions of recorded examples of commands, jokes, and conversations—most of them found on the Are there downsides to voice control? internet. Deep learning is also being used to teach AI assistants Privacy is a big one. Personal assistants are always “listening” for to speak back to users in ways that sound more natural, and less their “wake word,” often their name, and many users have had robotic, than earlier talking machines. the irritating experience of acci- As voice activation becomes even more dentally triggering their artificially advanced, many technologists believe, it Is artificial intelligence sexist? intelligent companions. When acti- could be as revolutionary as the search Judging by their voices, Alexa and Siri are women. vated, the assistants record users’ engine or the computer mouse, and So is Viv, another AI assistant recently acquired by voices and send the requests to serv- become the dominant way in which Samsung. Google Assistant doesn’t have a human ers for instant analysis. Amazon, we interact with our devices. Instead of name, but also uses a female voice. Cortana, by for example, keeps a record of its typing on a keyboard or tapping on a Microsoft, is named after a busty hologram in the users’ queries, though that personal screen, we will simply talk to them. video game series Halo, and before it was released, database can be deleted by users Facebook’s text-based assistant “M” was allegedly online. Naturally, there are concerns Who’s working on voice control? referred to within the company as Moneypenny, after the MI6 secretary who enjoyed a flirtatious rap- that having a listening device in Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft port with James Bond. Some technologists argue your home is an opportunity for are all pouring resources into voice that women’s voices are used because they are tech companies to gain even more technology, in particular AI assistants. statistically proven to be more pleasing than men’s, insight into your buying and per- Apple’s Siri was released for the iPhone helping put users at ease with talking to a com- sonal habits. “There are millions in 2011, but voice tech arguably took puter. But other critics see damaging gender stereo- of these in households, and they’re off with the introduction of Amazon’s types making the jump to computer code. “When not collecting dust,” says Nikko Alexa, built into the e-commerce giant’s you think of an assistant, you tend to think of Ström, a speech-recognition expert Echo home device, in 2014. Alexa was their voice as female,” says Michelle Habell-Pallán, who worked on Alexa. “We get an already in roughly 4 percent of U.S. an associate professor in gender studies at the insane amount of data coming in

households in the run-up to the most University of Washington. “So that’s no accident.” that we can work on.” Dan Josephs Illustration by

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Manufacturing: Trump’s robot dilemma President Trump has pledged to save trend. Shortly after the president-elect struck American jobs from Mexico and China, a deal with Carrier in November to keep but he might want to deal with the robots 800 jobs at an Indiana factory, the heating- first, said Peter Kafka in Recode.net. Stud- and-cooling company announced its future ies suggest that the vast majority of U.S. investments in the plant would focus on au- factory jobs lost in the past few decades tomation, eventually resulting in job losses. were lost not to overseas workers, but to Similar decisions across corporate America automation. That trend is only accelerat- will ultimately become a problem for a pres- ing. Machines could today feasibly replace ident who has pledged to be “the greatest at least some of what human workers do jobs producer that God ever created.” in 50 percent of all jobs, no matter the sector, according to an eye-popping new Machines: Your new work colleagues? It’s counterintuitive, but the answer is to report from management consultancy build more robots, said Farhad Manjoo in McKinsey. “That’s not just low-paying work but plenty of white- The New York Times. If Trump browbeats manufacturers into collar employment as well.” More workplaces than ever, from oil staying in the U.S., companies will naturally invest in more robots rigs to farms, “are now welcoming robotic laborers,” said Jamie to avoid paying our high wages. Right now, those robots aren’t Condliffe in TechnologyReview.com. An oil company that once being made in America; they’re built in China. Beijing has recently required 20 employees to work a drilling site “may soon need as invested billions of dollars in its robotics industry, hoping to keep few as five,” thanks to robots that have taken over dangerous, its manufacturers from fleeing to India, Vietnam, and other de- repetitive jobs joining heavy pipes as they’re driven into wells. veloping Asian economies where the labor is even cheaper. Now Robot workers are also infiltrating the mining and construction China is where the world goes to buy industrial robots. The U.S. industries. What’s a populist president to do? is behind in this arms race, but it could yet catch up, because it has many advantages China lacks, including a robust startup Not much, said David Randall in Reuters.com. Some 80 percent culture and the fact that many of the world’s most talented ro- of companies planning to cut jobs in the next year expect to boticists work at American universities. It would be politically replace at least some workers with automation, according to a difficult, of course, but consider the alternative: “Today, we buy recent survey by consulting and financial firm PwC. Ironically, a lot of stuff made in China by Chinese people. Tomorrow, we’ll Trump’s focus on American-made products could accelerate that buy stuff made in America—by Chinese robots.”

Innovation of the week Bytes: What’s new in tech

A Boeing space- Gen X’s love of social media the top right of desktop users’ News Feed— craft will soon Move over, Millennials, said Polly Mosendz in now features “only topics that have been be carrying Bloomberg.com. Despite the popular belief that covered by a significant number of credible astronauts to 20-somethings are addicted to their phones, publishers.” Topics will also no longer be the International it’s actually Generation X that “lavishes the personalized to each user, in order to avoid Space Station, most time on social media pages.” Americans creating echo chambers among like-minded and the aero- friends and to expose people to a “variety of nautics giant has ages 35 to 49 years old spend an average of designed a sleek six hours and 58 minutes a week on sites like different news sources and events.” Facebook new space suit for Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, compared said its algorithm now takes into account the ride, said Liz with six hours and 19 minutes for Millennials, how long certain news publishers have had Stinson in Wired according to a report from Nielsen. Boomers a presence on the social network, so that the .com. The form- spend about four hours a week e-socializing. newer fake news sites will receive less weight. fitting Boeing Blue suit weighs only Gen Xers also spend more time than any other 20 pounds, about 10 pounds lighter age group consuming all kinds of media, from Lyft’s big expansion than the bulky orange “pumpkin” the internet to TV, at about 32 hours a week. Ride-hailing service Lyft is coming to 100 ad- suits worn by NASA shuttle crews. It has some futuristic new features, That’s compared with 27 hours for Millen- ditional U.S. cities this year, said Andrew including touch-screen-compatible nials and about 20 hours for those 50 years Hawkins in TheVerge.com. The expansion gloves so astronauts can operate and older. Given such numbers, it’s fair to ask means the app will work in up to 300 locations tablets loaded with procedures and whether Gen X parents should “really be tell- by the end of the year, covering 72 percent of checklists, and vents that let water ing their kids to get off their phones.” the U.S. population. Even with this domestic vapor out—but not air—keeping the expansion, “Lyft has a long way to go to catch wearer cooler for longer. Boeing has Facebook takes on fake news up” with its chief rival, Uber, which operates in dumped the old fishbowl helmet for Facebook has overhauled its “trending top- 560 cities around the globe. But if the growth a zip-on soft blue hood made from plan proves profitable, many analysts expect the same nylon as the rest of the ics” feature to help fight the spread of fake outfit. The suits, which will be worn news stories, said Nathan Olivarez-Giles Lyft to eye international launches next year. inside the craft, not on spacewalks, and Deepa Seetharaman in The Wall Street The service has a more “driver friendly” repu- will undergo a battery of tests before Journal. In an effort to weed out hoaxes and tation than Uber. “Thanks to higher earnings they’re certified for launch next year. conspiracy theory–driven articles, the social and an in-app tipping option, drivers say they

network’s trending box—which appears at are happier with Lyft.” Boeing Getty,

THE WEEK February 10, 2017 Health & Science NEWS 21

Primates face mass extinction More than half the world’s primates are Today. Amid rising global demand for nat- on the verge of extinction, and they have ural resources and food, primate forests their Homo sapiens cousins to blame. A are being converted into cattle ranches, landmark new study reveals that farming, soybean fields, rice paddies, and palm oil hunting, mining, and other human activi- plantations. Bushmeat has become a key ties threaten to wipe out chimps, lemurs, source of food and income for impover- bonobos, and orangutans, to name just ished communities near primate habitats, a few. Tracking all 504 species—from while primate body parts believed to have Madagascar’s tiny mouse lemur to the healing powers are also being sold on A mama gorilla and her baby 450-pound eastern lowland gorilla of the black markets in Asia. If steps aren’t taken Democratic Republic of Congo—a global to mitigate habitat loss, climate change, four countries are home to two-thirds research team found that 75 percent are and illegal wildlife trade, these mammals of all primate species. “Governments, currently in decline and 60 percent face will begin to disappear over the next 25 nongovernmental organizations, cor- imminent extinction. “This truly is the years, researchers warn. They say con- porations, and citizens have to come 11th hour for many of these creatures,” servation efforts should focus on Brazil, together to change business as usual,” primatologist Paul Garber tells USA Madagascar, Indonesia, and Congo; these Garber says. “Now is the moment.”

years away, dubbed Wolf 1061c. But new ety disorder to take either an eight-week research suggests their excitement is pre- mindfulness-meditation stress-reduction mature, and that the planet may be a lot course, or general stress management classes more like Venus than Earth, Space.com that focused on wellness topics, like healthy reports. Australian astronomers discovered eating and good sleep habits. After analyz- Wolf 1061c in 2015. Known as a “super- ing blood samples from each participant, Earth”— a planet with a mass higher than the team found people who engaged in Earth’s but smaller than gas giants Uranus mindfulness meditation were better able to and Neptune—it appeared to fall within cope with stressful situations, ScienceDaily the star’s “Goldilocks zone,” the sweet spot .com reports. Those who learned to medi- with conditions theoretically suitable for tate had significantly lower levels of the An otter with badger-like jaws to crush shells water and life. But after a new analysis with stress hormone ACTH (adrenocorticotropic more precise measurements, San Francisco hormone) and markers of inflammation, A giant prehistoric otter State University researchers argue that Wolf called pro-inflammatory cytokines, than the Otters are such playful little creatures, 1061c lies on the inner edge of star Wolf ones who didn’t. “Mindfulness-meditation they’re often featured in children’s books— 1061’s habitable zone, where water would training is a relatively inexpensive and but their prehistoric ancestors were some- boil away as its atmosphere became thick low-stigma treatment approach,” says what more intimidating. Paleontologists with carbon dioxide. “It’s close enough to Georgetown psychiatrist Elizabeth Hoge. have discovered that a wolf-sized otter with Wolf 1061 where it’s looking suspiciously “These findings strengthen the case that it a powerful jaw lived in the swampy waters like a runaway greenhouse,” says study can improve resilience to stress.” of southwestern China some 6.2 million leader Stephen Kane. Astronomers theorize years ago. A specimen’s smashed skull, that a similar effect occurred on Venus, Health scare of the week jaw, and teeth were found along with where surface temperatures now reach a BBQ linked to breast cancer several limb bones in the soft sediment scalding 880 degrees. “They believe Venus Women are more likely to die from breast of the Shuitangba coal mine in Yunnan once had oceans, but because of its proxim- cancer if they eat a lot of grilled, smoked, province. After CT scans digitally restored ity to the Sun the planet became so hot that and barbecued meats, new research suggests. the skull’s shape, the researchers calculated all the water evaporated,” Kane explains. “It The study also found women who reported this ancient otter was about twice as big as made the surface of the planet even hotter.” greater intake of these foods have a 23 per- its largest modern cousins, stretching six cent greater risk of death from any cause. feet long and weighing about 110 pounds. Meditation and inflammation “There are many carcinogens found in The remains also revealed the prehistoric While a growing number of people swear grilled or smoked meats,” author Humberto creature had badger-like teeth, suggesting by the power of mindfulness meditation Parada tells The Washington Post, including it’s a previously unknown species. “It has to ease anxiety, skeptics question whether polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons [PAH], the skull of an otter but shares many den- the practice offers real physi- which are formed when meat—particularly tal similarities with badgers, which is why ological benefits. But doubters fatty meat—is subjected to very high heat. we called it melilutra”—Latin for “badger may want to consider a new Researchers monitored 1,500 women with otter”—researcher Xiaoming Wang tells study showing that mind- breast cancer for nearly two decades, and Smithsonian.com. It’s unclear why this fulness has measurable found that those who routinely ate large ancient badger-otter grew so large, but it’s effects on specific markers amounts of grilled, smoked, and barbecued likely the mollusk eater needed its crushing of stress and inflamma- m eats were 31 percent more likely to die jaws to crack tough shells. tion. Researchers from during the study period. Women who Georgetown University included substantial amounts of poultry A buzzkill for alien-hunters Medical Center ran- and fish in their diet, however, were Stargazers hunting for a potentially habit- domly assigned 45 percent less likely to die over able world beyond the Milky Way have 89 people with the same period than those who

Barcroft USA, Mauricio Antón, Getty Mauricio USA, Barcroft been homing in on a rocky planet 14 light- generalized anxi- didn’t eat these lean proteins.

THE WEEK February 10, 2017 22 NEWS Pick of the week’s cartoons

THE WEEK February 10, 2017 For more political cartoons, visit: www.theweek.com/cartoons. ARTS 23 Review of reviews: Books

Book of the week they consider it another name for crazy, and the doctors because they fear they Is It All in Your Head? True may have overlooked a physical cause. But “medicine is an inexact science,” and it’s Stories of Imaginary Illness better for doctors to be open to a psycho- by Suzanne O’Sullivan somatic cause than to subject a patient to (Other Press, $27) unnecessary surgeries or drug treatments. Suzanne O’Sullivan is an unusually good “This is a wise book, but one with few listener, said James McConnachie in The happy endings,” said William Bynum Sunday Times (U.K.). In her “extraordi- in The Wall Street Journal. Because nary” and “extraordinarily compassionate” O’Sullivan is not a psychologist herself, new book, the London-based neurologist she frequently has nothing to report shares numerous tales of patients she’s Plumbing the body-mind connection about what happened to her patients who treated whose paralysis, seizures, or with- accepted a psychosomatic diagnosis and ered limbs were no less real because they “Her findings are striking,” said Jerome began therapy. We do learn that Yvonne had no physical cause. One patient, a Groopman in The New York Review of fully regained her sight after six months woman she refers to as “Yvonne,” went Books. Early in her career, O’Sullivan stud- of counseling that relieved emotional blind one day even though her eyes, as doc- ied epilepsy patients who weren’t respond- stress generated by circumstances at home. tors could see, never stopped tracking moving to standard treatment and discovered Her example—as well as the finding that ing objects. What Yvonne and the others that the seizures of fully 70 percent of them psychosomatic illness is more common taught O’Sullivan is that a psychosomatic were solely attributable to psychological among victims of childhood sexual abuse— illness is not a fake illness: It’s a sometimes causes. And psychosomatic illness appears suggests that therapy might work wonders debilitating physical expression of the to be widespread: Surveys show that a for other patients too. Whatever the out- subconscious, treatable only by doctors quarter of all people who seek medical care comes for these individuals, their stories ready to recognize that the sufferers need complain of symptoms for which caregiv- remind us that emotions play a role in the appropriate therapy, not scorn. O’Sullivan’s ers can find no physical basis. Doctors manifestation of every illness. “In the end, book, aimed at a general audience, “tries to and patients alike resist labeling illnesses all disease is psychosomatic—disease of awaken that humane response in all of us.” “psychosomatic”—the patients because both body and mind.”

In the Midnight Hour: The Life poor in 1941 Alabama, Pickett moved to Novel of the week & Soul of Wilson Pickett Detroit in his teens and was just 18 when he wrote and recorded his first R&B single. 4 3 2 1 by Tony Fletcher (Oxford, $28) by Paul Auster Over the next 10 years, he recorded at Stax Soul legend Wilson Records in Memphis and at Fame Studios (Holt, $32.50) Pickett is a difficult in Muscle Shoals, Ala., honing his pitch- At least 4 3 2 1 isn’t just another version character to like, perfect scream as he delivered such huge of “the same old Paul Auster novel,” said said Carlo Wolff in crossover hits as “In the Midnight Hour” Christian Lorentzen in New York maga- the Pittsburgh Post- and “Mustang Sally.” Along the way, he zine. Once touted by critics as a Nobel Gazette. A man with gave guitarist Duane Allman his start and Prize candidate, the Brooklyn-based a temper to match rehabilitated the career of songwriter Bobby writer has slipped steadily in reputa- his talent, he deserves Womack. So he was at least in the middle tion as he’s produced little else but slim plenty of blame for works of noir-inspired metafiction. In his of things, if not at the forefront. And if he 866-page new novel, unfortunately, he’s the collapse of his hadn’t been such a volatile man, his accom- “writing against his strengths”—slowing once enviable career plishments might be more widely celebrated. a simple coming-of-age story to a crawl and any discounting by recounting four possible versions of of his legacy that’s Pickett’s worst moments are reported the hero’s life, each shaped by multiple occurred in the decades since. But the late unflinchingly here, albeit with “an almost twists of fate. Archie Ferguson, in each singer finally has a champion, British jour- scholarly detachment,” said Robert Ham telling, is born in 1947 in Newark, N.J., nalist Tony Fletcher, and the veteran musi- in Paste magazine. The singer beat his son said Laura Miller in The New Yorker. cal biographer “makes the most of Pickett’s with a baseball bat and countless girlfriends One Archie dies young, the other three stormy story,” tracking down old anec- with whatever was at hand, and he died at become writers, and two of those are dotes, obsessing over crucial recordings, 64, wrecked by drugs and alcohol. Fletcher forgettable suburban liberals. The third, and daring to argue that Pickett should at lets Pickett’s peers pass judgment on such “vastly more interesting” adult Archie is least be mentioned in the same breath as misbehavior, while reserving his own criti- a bisexual Manhattanite forever battling James Brown and Otis Redding. “It turns cal comments for the music. He finds little convention, but he, too, makes a reader to praise in the catalog Pickett assembled wish the book were a quarter its length. out that he was not just at the vanguard of “Sprawling, repetitive, occasionally his generation,” Fletcher writes. “Wilson after the advent of disco and smooth funk. splendid but just as often exasperating, Pickett effectively was the vanguard.” Even so, he makes clear that a full biog- 4 3 2 1 is never quite dull, but it comes raphy of this R&B giant has been long too close to tedium too often.” “The claim bears examination,” said David overdue. “The universe,” it seems, “was

Getty Kirby in The Wall Street Journal. Born dirt- waiting for Fletcher to take it on.”

THE WEEK February 10, 2017 24 ARTS The Book List

Author of the week Best books...chosen by John Cleese Comedy icon John Cleese is an actor, producer, writer, one of the co-founders of Edward O. Thorp Monty Python, and a man after whom scientists named a rare species of lemur in Edward Thorp will take a 2005. His memoir, So Anyway, was recently released in audiobook form. chance on anything—even his life, said Michael Kaplan The Master and His Emissary by Iain McGil- New York City is an absolutely superb book. It in the New York Post. The christ (Yale, $30). This is probably the most delighted me, and told me so much about a cer- 84-year-old mathematician’s interesting, most important book I’ve ever read. tain part of American society. résumé includes stints as McGilchrist is a quite extraordinary man. He Psychological Commentaries on the an MIT professor and as a taught English at Oxford but decided he didn’t Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky hedge-fund investor, but he’s like the way people talked about poetry. So by probably best he became a psychiatrist, and worked on the Maurice Nicoll (out of print). Nicoll, a British known for neuroimaging of the brain. His book is about psychiatrist, was a pupil of Armenian philoso- inventing the the brain’s distinct hemispheres. He believes that pher and mystic George Gurdjieff. His multi- art of card volume book contains, I think, the best advice on counting. they have different ways of living, of being in life, and that, in our present civilization, they’ve understanding one’s own psychology as looked After Thorp at through the Esoteric Christian tradition. laid out a fallen out of balance. probability- Popper by Bryan Magee (Fontana, $13). To me, Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis (NYRB Classics, based strat- Karl Popper is the best philosopher of science of $15). I met Amis once and liked him very much. egy for playing blackjack the last century. This little book taught me more He was rather sour, but he wrote beautifully, at a 1961 academic confer- about the philosophy of science than any other. and he did really manage to describe certain per- ence, an anonymous backer sonalities. His first novel is about a fellow called offered to bankroll him on War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (Vintage, $20). Dixon, a history lecturer at a minor university. a trip to Las Vegas. There, It’s been many years since I read this one, but I Dixon has wonderfully funny fantasies, and Thorp won game after game. can still remember certain sequences: men riding Margaret, his sometime girlfriend, is one of the He also won the ire of casino horseback into battle, and the way they try to most awful human beings in fiction. I remember owners. Once, at the Dunes, distract themselves from the fact that they could reading this by the side of a swimming pool he requested coffee but be dead or wounded terribly in an hour’s time. in Spain, and I was really quite bothering the seemed to get something The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe people around me because I kept bursting into much stronger. His mind hysterical laughter. grew fuzzy, and friends said (Picador, $20). Wolfe’s big novel about 1980s his pupils dilated. “Clearly I had been drugged,” he says. “My friends kept me on my Also of interest...in life inside the bubble feet, kept me walking, and I was eventually OK.” Perfect Little World Superhubs by Kevin Wilson (Ecco, $27) by Sandra Navidi (Nicholas Brealey, $30) In his new memoir, A Man for All Markets, Thorp credits his “The sheer energy of imagination in When it comes to the art of network- casino experience with the Kevin Wilson’s work makes other ing with the global elite, “few are success he later achieved on writers of realistic fiction look lazy,” better” than Sandra Navidi, said John Wall Street, said John Navin said Marion Winik in Newsday. In Gapper in the Financial Times. A in Forbes.com. “Beating his second novel, he brings to life a lawyer and investment banker who’s the blackjack tables was a fictional utopian commune where a regular at Davos, Navidi has pro- preparation without equal 10 families with newborns share all child-rearing duced an “appealingly ingenuous” portrait of for successful investing,” he responsibilities. Wilson’s young heroine, a single that world of highfliers, sometimes celebrating says. “It was a lot like card mom from Tennessee, signs on, then watches and sometimes needling her titular superhubs— counting, [but] I could do it as the leader’s vision unravels. Fortunately, the well-connected billionaires like Bill Gates and and not get my legs broken.” book’s final surprise “reminds us that not every- George Soros. At one point, she even has the He founded a hedge fund that was the first to use a quantita- thing unpredictable is painful or bad.” temerity to tease Vladimir Putin face-to-face. tive investment strategy. But The Strays Valley of the Gods that business, too, landed him in trouble. In 1987, federal by Emily Bitto (Twelve, $26) by Alexandra Wolfe (Simon & Schuster, $27) authorities raided one of the This outstanding debut novel“invites “Silicon Valley is always ripe for a fund’s offices and charged readers into a world that is by turns takedown,” but Tom Wolfe’s daughter Thorp’s partner with illegal disturbing and magical,” said Jean lets it off too easy, said Kevin Canfield junk bond trading. Thorp Zimmerman in NPR.org. Its narrator in the San Francisco Chronicle. closed shop a year later. But his talent for flouting conven- is 8 when she meets and quietly begins Alexandra Wolfe, a Wall Street Journal tional wisdom continued to adoring a schoolmate, the middle reporter, focuses her first book on serve him well. His approach, daughter of two artists at the center of a crowded, 20 teenagers who’ve each taken a $100,000 grant he says, has never changed. decadent 1930s Melbourne household. There’s from entrepreneur Peter Thiel and agreed to skip “I hear information, run the entirely too much reefer and booze and acting out college to pursue a startup dream. The kids make numbers, and usually find my before the idyll collapses, but Emily Bitto’s eye good interview subjects, but the rest of Wolfe’s way to the truth.” never fails. Her word pictures “elevate the ordi- behind-the-curtain tour is “a collection of worn-

nary to the exquisite.” out stereotypes and generalizations.” King, Bob Mark Jordan

THE WEEK February 10, 2017 Review of reviews: Art, Stage & Film ARTS 25

Christo’s boycott: The sudden Yours Unfaithfully death of a would-be landmark The Beckett Theatre, New York City, The artist Christo has made a mistake of (212) 239-6200 ++++ colossal proportions, said Jonathan Jones Maybe polyamory in TheGuardian.com. At a moment when is still an idea ahead artists are scrambling to decide how best to of its time, said respond to Donald Trump’s presidency, the Alexis Soloski in celebrated wrapper of islands, parks, and The New York Times. other outsize landmarks announced that he’s In this “refined, rueful, and often walking away from his 20-year dream of shrewd” comedy— draping silver fabric over 6 miles of a river published in 1933 Gray and von Essen that runs through federal land in Colorado. but never previously Christo, an 81-year-old Bulgarian-born Christo and his Colorado vision: A forfeited dream produced—British playwright Miles U.S. citizen, referred to Trump when he Malleson put his own enthusiasm for declared, “I can’t do a project that benefits largest permanent sculpture in the world, open marriages under a microscope, this landlord.” But if artists are outraged The Mastaba, which will be built in the and the result is often very funny, but by Trump, they should “work harder than United Arab Emirates with help from the also “very nearly a tragedy.” Max von ever” to offer their alternative cultural royal family—a nation with a very poor Essen and Elisabeth Gray play a couple vision, not go on strike. “Art is the easiest human rights record. Besides, Christo has who’ve agreed that sexual flings are way for ideas and emotions to cross bor- gotten what he wanted out of Over the healthy, and the actors “do an admi- ders,” and it “must never silence itself.” River and the millions already spent on it, rable job of portraying the seesaw emo- said Ray Mark Rinaldi in The Denver Post. tions of the convention-bending pair,” said Pete Hempstead in TheaterMania Whenever he has proposed a major work Christo might not even be a sincere refuse- .com. Not enough laughs are delivered nik, said Benjamin Sutton in Hyperallergic of environmental art, he has cared as much to justify the long wait for a final dra- .com. The Colorado project, Over the about the process of planning it and fighting matic payoff. Still, Yours Unfaithfully River, was still awaiting final approvals for it and articulating the case for it as about “offers keen insights into the destruc- after decades of battles with locals who said how the process ends. “Congratulations, tiveness of jealousy,” and it wisely its two-week run would do lasting environ- Christo”: The cancellation of Over the avoids a tidy ending—leaving the fate of mental damage. Abandoning it allows him River “actually prolongs the project in its the couple’s marriage “wide open.” to turn his attention to constructing the purest form—as an object of talk.”

The Salesman Asghar Farhadi is “the best a Salesman when they’re forced kind of political filmmaker,” to change apartments. In the Directed by said David Sims in TheAtlantic new place, Alidoosti’s Rana is Asghar Farhadi .com. Like his 2011 Oscar win- assaulted by an intruder, giving (PG-13) ner, A Separation, the Iranian viewers a mystery to solve, said ++++ director’s latest contender for Joe Morgenstern in The Wall A marriage frays the same prize couches its cri- Street Journal. But as Rana tries after an assault. tique of his country’s social to put the incident behind her order in a wrenching domestic and Hosseini’s Emad becomes drama. Though The Salesman Alidoosti and Hosseini: Victims both? consumed by anger, the deepest ends too neatly, it combines the mysteries “have to do with who story of a marriage with a low-key tale of revenge, Emad and Rana reveal themselves to be, as opposed “and is all the more impressive for how seamlessly to who they thought they were.” Emad eventually it executes that shift.” Shahab Hosseini and Taraneh does track down his wife’s attacker, said A.O. Scott Alidoosti play a couple in Tehran who are acting in in The New York Times. The scenes that follow an amateur production of Arthur Miller’s Death of prove “at once riveting and hard to watch.” Gold Alas, the McConaissance Roeper in the Chicago Sun- has run out of steam, said Times. His big performance all Directed by Stephen Whitty in the Newark, but carries this “overlong but Stephen Gaghan N.J., Star-Ledger. Matthew nonetheless entertaining” picture. (R) McConaughey’s midcareer resur- Based on a true story about a ++++ gence produced a lot of rich, fairy-tale 1988 gold strike and the A wily dreamer memorably weird characters, scandals that followed, it “feels strikes it rich. peaking with the actor’s Oscar- more like a gold-plated version winning turn in 2013’s Dallas of the truth,” yet “you take the Buyers Club. But as Kenny McConaughey with co-star Édgar Ramírez ride” anyway. Unfortunately, Wells, a potbellied Nevada “the plot drags inexcusably,” schemer who decides to go hunting for gold in 1980s said Michael O’Sullivan in The Washington Post. Indonesia, the 47-year-old star “never stops trying too Good as the real story is, the director and screenwriter hard.” He “screams, smirks, and sweats,” yet never couldn’t figure out how to create suspense with it. In gives us a sense of the man’s supposed charisma. the end, Gold “never rises above a character study,

Newscom, Richard Termine, Amazon Studios/AP, Patrick Brown Patrick Studios/AP, Amazon Termine, Richard Newscom, McConaughey’s work isn’t the problem, Richard albeit one centered on a Technicolor personality.”

THE WEEK February 10, 2017 26 ARTS Television

Movies on TV The Week’s guide to what’s worth watching

Monday, Feb. 6 City in the Sky Planet of the Apes At any given time, more than a million people An astronaut lands in a are aloft in airplanes. This three-part documen- strange world where talk- tary series examines the complex logistics that ing primates keep humans make it possible for some 100,000 aircraft to lift in shackles. Charlton off, stay aloft, and land safely every day. In the Heston stars. (1968) 8 p.m., first episode, the lessons are all about getting off Sundance the ground, whether in the world’s largest com- Tuesday, Feb. 7 mercial plane (the Airbus A380), in its coldest Grumpy Old Men city (Yakutsk, Siberia), or from its largest-volume Screen legends Jack airport (Dubai). Wednesday, Feb. 8, at 10 p.m., Lemmon and Walter PBS; check local listings Matthau have a cantanker- ous chemistry that fuels David Brent: Life on the Road The Missing: Karyo’s French bloodhound this comedy about rival TV’s most cringeworthy boss is back. In this neighbors who compete for funny though conventional feature-length com- from Season 1, back into the drama. Tcheky the affections of a widow. edy, Ricky Gervais reprises his role as the foot- Karyo stars as Baptiste; Alice’s parents are played With Ann-Margret. (1993) in-mouth middle manager at the center of the by Keeley Hawes and The Walking Dead’s David 6:15 p.m., Cinemax original British version of The Office. Gervais’ Morrissey. Sunday, Feb. 12, at 8 p.m., Starz Wednesday, Feb. 8 David Brent is now older but still in sales when Full Metal Jacket he ditches his day job to pursue his dream of pop The Walking Dead Stanley Kubrick’s Vietnam stardom, teaming up with a young rapper as co- The first half of The Walking Dead’s seventh flick follows a Marine pla- frontman of a band called Foregone Conclusion. season opened with the death of a major char- toon from basic training to Available for streaming Friday, Feb. 10, Netflix acter and an introduction of a bat-wielding vil- lain. The season’s second half will be all about combat during 1968’s Tet The Collection Offensive. (1987) 8 p.m., IFC rebellion, with Rick and the group sloughing off In 1947 Paris, two brothers at the head of a Thursday, Feb. 9 Negan’s totalitarian rule and preparing for war. premiere fashion house take on the challenge Sunday, Feb. 12, at 9 p.m., AMC Kill Bill Vol. 1 of resurrecting haute couture in the wake of A trained assassin under- war and German occupation. In this handsome Other highlights takes an epic revenge mis- drama series, Claude Sabine is the artist, Paul Michael Bolton’s Big Sexy sion against the cadre of Sabine is the head-cracker, and if you don’t get Valentine’s Day Special elite killers who turned her too distracted by the sumptuous clothing and The crooner of 1980s schmaltz hosts a mock wedding into a bloodbath. meticulous period detail, you may notice that telethon whose purpose is to inspire the world Uma Thurman stars. (2003) to propagate. Available for streaming Tuesday, 9 p.m., Starz Paul’s American wife is played by Meryl Streep’s daughter, Mamie Gummer, and she turns in a Feb. 7, Netflix Friday, Feb. 10 potential breakout performance. Richard Coyle Smokey Robinson: The Library of Congress The Grapes of Wrath and Frances de la Tour co-star. Available for Gershwin Prize for Popular Song John Ford adapts John streaming Friday, Feb. 10, Amazon The legendary R&B singer is feted with an Steinbeck’s landmark novel The Missing all-star concert featuring CeeLo Green, Corine about an Oklahoma family’s Bailey Rae, Aloe Blacc, and more. Friday, Depression-era struggle, The second season of this British crime series and puts Henry Fonda in opens with a riveting new case. A young woman Feb. 10, at 9 p.m., PBS; check local listings the lead. (1940) 8 p.m., TCM appears in a German town claiming to be Alice The 59th Annual Grammy Awards Saturday, Feb. 11 Webster, a girl who disappeared 11 years earlier. Adele headlines a list of performers that also A Hard Day’s Night Her account soon sheds light on the disappear- includes Bruno Mars, Metallica, and Carrie Beatlemania gives cine- ance of another girl, which brings French detec- Underwood. James Corden hosts. Sunday, philes a keeper as John, tive Julien Baptiste, the only character returning Feb. 12, at 8 p.m., CBS Paul, George, and Ringo try to outrun their screaming teenage fans while piling Show of the week up an album’s worth of pop Legion classics. (1964) 10 p.m., TCM There are those legions of other superhero shows, and then there’s Legion. Show creator Sunday, Feb. 12 Noah Hawley, who spun off an excellent TV Intolerable Cruelty series from the movie Fargo, performs a differ- George Clooney and ent magic with this genre-busting adaptation Catherine Zeta-Jones of an obscure X-Men story. Downton Abbey’s develop an adversarial Dan Stevens is twitch perfect as David Haller, a attraction in the Coen mutant who mistakes his telepathic, telekinetic brothers’ romantic comedy powers for schizophrenia—until he meets a about a divorce lawyer and touch-phobic fellow patient named Syd. Not a the gold-digger wife of a lot of spandex here, just trippy Kubrick-inspired wealthy client. (2003) visuals, a killer soundtrack, and terrific plotting. 10 p.m., Ovation Syd and David: Ill, or differently abled? Wednesday, Feb. 8, at 10 p.m., FX Robert Viglasky, Chris Large/FX Viglasky, Robert

THE WEEK February 10, 2017 • All listings are Eastern Time. LEISURE 27 Food & Drink Torta rustica: A savory Italian pie that harbors a fizzy secret

“For me, baking is an almost magi- room temperature about 20 minutes. Cut cal process,” says Gennaro Contaldo 2 zucchini lengthwise into ¼-inch-thick in Panetteria: Gennaro’s Italian Bakery slices. Heat grill pan over high heat and (Interlink). If I hadn’t become a chef, I’d grill slices on each side until they soften. have chosen to be a baker like my uncle, Remove and set aside. because I love the lengthy rituals of bread making, and “it never ceases to amaze Preheat oven to 375. Line a 9½-inch me that a few simple ingredients mixed round pie dish with parchment paper. Slice together and placed in the oven produce remaining zucchini into thin rounds. Heat such incredible mouthwatering delicacies.” 1 tbsp olive oil in a pan, add pancetta and onion, and fry over medium heat, stirring But there are also shortcuts. Pasta matta until pancetta is nearly crisp and onion has is an easy-to-make Italian pastry used in softened. Add sliced zucchini, reduce heat both sweet and savory dishes. Its name to low, cover, and cook until zucchini has means “crazy pastry,” and it’s made by let- softened, about 5 minutes. Remove from ting sparkling mineral water do the work heat, drain any liquid, and leave to cool. that yeast typically performs. I use it for a Combine ricotta, 1 egg, basil, Parmesan, ricotta and zucchini torta that’s great for and pancetta-zucchini mixture in a bowl. a picnic or paired with salad for a light Season with salt and black pepper to taste. lunch. Grilled ribbons of zucchini are used to create a lattice, producing “a very pretty Prepare an egg wash by whisking together ‘A very pretty pie indeed’ pie indeed.” 1 egg yolk and milk. On a lightly floured 2 eggs work surface, roll out pastry to about Recipe of the week Handful of basil leaves, roughly torn ¹∕16 -inch thick; place in pie dish, making Torta rustica Scant ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese sure you have some excess pastry around Scant 3¼ cups all-purpose flour, sifted Salt and freshly ground black pepper the edges. Add filling. Arrange zucchini Pinch of salt 1 tbsp milk strips in a lattice pattern over filling, then 7 tbsp extra virgin olive oil fold excess pastry over to create a deep ²∕³ cup sparkling water Combine flour and salt in a large bowl. edge, pinching it at regular intervals to seal. 3 large zucchini Make a well in the center, add 6 tbsp olive Brush pastry and zucchini lattice with egg 1½ oz pancetta, cut into small cubes oil, and gradually add sparkling water, wash; bake pie about 25 minutes, until 1 small onion, finely chopped mixing to form a soft dough. Shape into golden. Remove from oven and allow to 1 cup ricotta a ball, wrap in plastic, and leave to rest at rest 5 minutes. Serves 6.

Filipino, for real: A perpetual ‘next big thing’ arrives Wine: Corsican reds Maybe you’ve heard this said before, but “the time for Corsica is part of France, but it remains Filipino food to take center stage is finally here,” said Kate “very much its own place,” said Eric Krader in Bloomberg.com. Google searches for lumpia are Asimov in The New York Times. Home skyrocketing; Washington, D.C.’s Bad Saint looks like the to several indigenous grapes, the Medi- flag bearer the cuisine has needed; and cities throughout terranean island produces wines that the country can point to at least one Filipino eatery that bring out the best in varieties that else- adds to the momentum. As L.A. waits for Alvin Cailan to where go unnoticed. Take sciaccarellu, go full time with Amboy and New York City waits for Dale a minor player in Chianti. Grown in the Talde to add Rice & Gold to his growing pan-Asian empire, dry granite soils of southern Corsica, here are three other stops worth investigating. the grape becomes “another thing RiceBar Los Angeles. Seasoned fine-dining chef Charles entirely, with bright vivid flavors of Olalia threw it all away to get back to the food of his flowers, red fruit, and stony earth.” Filipino childhood. In his tiny storefront in the Jewelry 2013 U Stiliccionu Ajaccio Antica District, he’s focused on dishes like pancit luglug—rice ($32). “Pure, alive, and complex,” this sciaccarellu mixes red fruit and min- Perla’s Lou Boquila noodles with egg and shrimp—and an avocado and radish salad topped with dilis, sun-dried, deep-fried anchovies. eral flavors with a “touch of funk.” 419 W. 7th St., (213) 807-5341, ricebarla.com 2013 Comte Abbatucci Ajaccio Kuneho Austin. Celebrity chef Paul Qui has renamed and refashioned his flagship loca- Rouge Cuvée Faustine ($37). Two tion as he humbly climbs back from an arrest last March for domestic abuse. Though the Corsican grapes, sciaccarellu and menu leans Japanese, Qui’s Filipino roots show in dishes like sisig, an “unconventional” niellucciu, meet here and yield pork stir-fry spiked with citrus and chiles. 1600 E. 6th St., (512) 436-9626, kunehoatx.com notes of red fruit, stone, and herbs. Perla Philadelphia. Lou Boquila is reinterpreting the food he grew up with at this com- 2015 Domaine Maestracci Calvi pact, six-month-old BYOB. He makes a pork adobo with brussels sprouts and a duck Clos Reginu ($20). Several grapes adobo with cauliflower and kabocha. But you can get lumpia—those popular meat-filled join to create a blend that’s “juicy, spring rolls—at Sunday’s family-style dinners. 1535 S. 11th St., (267) 273-0008 earthy, and a tad rustic.” Courtesy of author, Melissa de Mata Courtesy of author,

THE WEEK February 10, 2017 28 LEISURE Travel

This week’s dream...The stark beauty in the Atacama Desert

I am only steps outside the airport gypsum, and lamprophyre have col- in Calama, Chile, when an awe- ored the course of a long-gone river in some sight halts me in my tracks, green, blue, pink, and yellow. Valle de said Chris Leadbeater in National la Luna, or Moon Valley, proves aptly Geographic Traveler. A perfect vol- named as well—“all cracked earth cano, rising 4,330 feet to a pursed and unfriendly terrain,” with pillars mouth circled by snow, looms of salt rising from the thirsty soil. ahead in the middle distance, “a geographical god among mortals.” “For all its sharp teeth,” the Ata- For two minutes, I’m so entranced cama Desert grows fairly hospitable by Licancabur that I forget I have after dark. Ideal for stargazing, it just touched down in one of the dri- houses some of the largest and best est places on earth. The orange dust observatories in the world, includ- that swirls around me, sticking to my ing a few, like the Paranal, that offer boots and face, is my greeting from Salt pillars rise from the desert floor in Valle de la Luna. free tours. You need only your own the Atacama Desert. Bounded by the eyes to see the Milky Way in full Andes, the high, narrow plateau stretches home base for my forays, mostly on guided glory, though, and I’m happy to discover for more than 600 miles, and though it’s tours, into the wild. On a nearby bluff a high-powered telescope set up a short hostile to most life-forms, “you could argue stands evidence of past desert dwellers: a walk from my lodge. I’m welcomed by that it’s Chile at its most alluring.” crumbling fortress built in the 12th cen- five other enthusiastic guests, and when tury by the Licanantay people, seized by my turn arrives, “the sky, through the lens, Ready refuge from the sun and heat is a the Incas three centuries later, and then in is twitching with dots and dabs of white, must. Over the next three days, the Alto the 1540s by Spanish conquistadors. On incomprehensible in its enormity.” Atacama Desert Lodge & Spa, outside San another day, we trek to Valle del Arcoiris, At Alto Atacama (altoatacama.com), Pedro de Atacama, provides a luxurious or Rainbow Valley, to marvel at how cobalt, doubles start at $650

Hotel of the week Getting the flavor of... A cruise ship for 1-percenters Maine’s cryptid museum In 2017, being super rich is no longer something Bigfoot may live in Northern California, but one to hide, said Marjie Lambert in The Miami of the best places to get to know him is Portland, Herald. That’s the thinking that built the new Maine, said Susan Farlow in the Los Angeles Regent Seven Seas Explorer, a luxury cruise ship Times. The recently expanded International that “clearly exemplifies the category.” Nearly an Cryptozoology Museum, the only institution acre of marble was quarried to accent its interi- of its kind, specializes in cryptids—creatures ors, the walls are decked with $7 million in art, like the Abominable Snowman and the Loch The view from the spa pool and the menu in its main restaurant is “laden Ness Monster that are rumored but not proven with lobster, caviar, foie gras, and escargot.” The to exist. Founded in 2003 by author Loren Ion Luxury Adventure Hotel cruise line budgeted $450 million to build the Coleman, the museum now houses 10,000 speci- Nesjavellir, Iceland vessel, then exceeded that figure, all for the right mens and artifacts, including indigenous art; There may be no better place to claim that the 750-passenger Explorer is the famous 1967 “Bigfoot” film footage; and a hairy, to experience the land of fire most luxurious ship ever built. Passengers cur- 8-foot-tall sculptural rendering of that elusive and ice, said Chris Hatherill rently cruising the Caribbean are paying $1,200 screen star. Sea serpents get a display, too, as does in Amuse.Vice.com. Formerly a night for even the smallest suite, and demand the Tatzelwurm, a large reptile said to reside in the workers’ quarters for a has been high for the ship’s crown jewel: the the Alps. The museum also addresses obvious geothermal power station, $10,000-a-night Regent Suite. In those plush hoaxes like the jackalope, a mythic jackrabbit the Ion straddles two conti- nental plates and looks out quarters, a late-night stroll past the Steinway with antelope horns. Anyway, you don’t have to on “an otherworldly land- piano and Picasso lithographs leads to a $90,000 be a believer to enjoy a visit. “The museum is scape of rocks, ice, steam, mattress and—of course—a pillow menu. fun. Plus, you’ll get one heck of a selfie.” and sky.” Mammoth forces “tear at the very ground,” but the Ion is fortified to Last-minute travel deals withstand the tremors, and A Montana winterlude Travel like a pharaoh A new Yucatán resort its “sleek yet cozy” gather- Through March 11, the 320 Explore Egypt on an eight-night Through April, the Andaz ing places encourage guests Guest Ranch, in Big Sky, Mont., Alexander + Roberts tour and Mayakoba Resort Riviera Maya to trade tales of adventures is offering activities-packed spe- save $500. The Visions of Egypt is offering third nights free to undertaken by snowmobile cials. The four-night Celebrating offer starts at $3,799 a person celebrate its opening. Through or helicopter. After dinner, Snow offer starts at $1,369 a and includes a four-night cruise July, rooms at the new beach- the hot-spring-fed outdoor couple and includes dog sled- on the Nile, Egyptologist-led front property south of Cancún spa pool is hard to resist. ding, a sleigh ride, and a snow- tours of Cairo, and three domes- start at $425 a night, breakfast ioniceland.is; rooms coach tour of Yellowstone. tic flights. Book by March 15. included. from $275 320ranch.com alexanderroberts.com mayakoba.andaz.hyatt.com eStock Photo, Alamy Photo, eStock

THE WEEK February 10, 2017 Consumer LEISURE 29

The 2017 Cruze Hatchback: What the critics say Car & Driver the hatch “would be the obvious pick.” With Meet the car that President Trump doesn’t its rear seats folded, it offers a respectable want on American roads—at least at its 47 cubic feet of cargo space, and it’s better current price. The new Cruze hatchback isn’t looking than the Ohio-built sedan, too. No, much different from the sedan it’s based on: it isn’t a “hot” hatch, but that’s OK: When “Undeniably competent” but “decidedly un- you get it out on the road, “words like ‘re- sporty,” it puts practicality above fun and for fi nement’ and ‘smoothness’ come to mind the fi rst time gives Chevrolet a solid player more often than ‘sporty.’” in the small yet growing market for compact fi ve-doors. But the hatchback is built in Jalopnik.com Mexico—and that made it a target of a Alas, this “fantastically well put together” A White House irritant, from $22,115 Jan. 3 tweet in which Trump warned Chevy, compact faces a challenge beyond its lack of “Make in U.S.A. or pay big border tax!” back-road verve. It’s hard for any automaker it continues being built in Mexico and sold to clear a profi t on a small car, so a “big elsewhere around the world. The U.S. con- Autoblog.com border tax” would probably force Chevrolet sumer would suffer, and “that would really If asked to choose between the two Cruzes, to stop importing the Cruze hatch—even as be the only result.”

The best of…overnight beauty products

Me Glow Beauty Aromatherapy Caolion Pore This Works Sleep Boosting Pillowcase Associates Overnight StriVectin All Smooth Tightening Memory Plus Dream Body Fight wrinkles while you Repair Mask Anti-Frizz Serum Sleeping Mask Anti-aging potions aren’t snooze using a pillow- City dwellers worried Banish unwanted frizz The effect on your skin just for your face. This case with copper-infused about the effect of air pol- and fl yaways with this of wearing this mask full-body cream is for- thread. Copper ions lution on their skin will overnight hair hydrator, through the night is mulated with retinol and promote skin renewal, appreciate this intensive which repairs damage “equivalent to acciden- essential oils like laven- according to dermatolo- repairing mask, which is from root to tip with tally doing your laundry der and chamomile to gists, and the pillowcase packed with restorative hydrolyzed oat and milk on the hot water cycle.” soothe and “de-age” irri- fabric feels like your ingredients like rice proteins. Just comb it You will wake to fi rmer, tated skin while helping skin should: “sturdy, yet germ, millet seed, and into damp hair and hit smoother skin. promote better sleep. smooth to the touch.” strawberry seed. the pillow. $38, sephora.com $46, thisworks.com $55, mepower.com $88, net-a-porter.com $35, nordstrom.com Source: InStyle.com Source: Allure Source: W magazine Source: InStyle.com Source: Allure

Tip of the week… And for those who have Best apps… Four signs that your phone is dying everything... For doing the work of pricier software QThe screen malfunctions. When the screen No matter how QLibreOffice is a “more than capable” sub- starts ignoring taps and swipes, or responds cluttered your stitute for the Microsoft Office suite—and very slowly, your phone is most likely near countertops it’s free. Now elegant rather than merely death. A screen that flickers or displays bands already are, you’d functional, it can be used to open and edit or vertical lines isn’t done, though, so have better Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and that problem looked at by a pro. make PowerPoint presentations. QIt constantly reboots. Phones that repeat- room QGIMP is a free image-manipulation pro- edly shut down without warning probably for the gram that “can work pretty much exactly need a new battery, as do phones that run Bacon Express like Photoshop when you need it to.” too briefly on a charge. If the battery can’t be Crispy Bacon Grill. Paint.net is another good option, but only easily replaced, you can extend the phone’s Created by Wisconsin-based Nostalgia for Windows users. life with an external battery pack. If not, it’s Electrics, it’s a device that’s good at only one QAvira (for Windows) and Sophos (for time to look for a new phone. thing. But the way it performs that task is Macs) are solid antivirus programs. Com- QIt slows to a crawl. Try dumping unneed- pretty ingenious. Just drape up to six strips of bine them with the anti-malware program ed files and apps, updating your software, bacon on the cooking plate, close, and set the MalwareBytes and you’ll have strong pro- and—after backing up files—resetting the heating dial for your desired level of crisp- tection at no cost. phone. When those steps don’t work, it’s ness. The fat drips off the bacon as it cooks QDaVinci Resolve isn’t easily mastered, but probably replacement time. into an easy-to-remove pan. Yes, the Bacon it does offer a full set of video-editing tools. QIt overheats. An overheated phone can Express cooks only delicious slices of salty QLMMS is a powerful alternative to pricey explode, so have it checked immediately. Be pork. But a slot toaster cooks only bread. music editing and mixing programs like especially cautious if the battery is bulging. $40, amazon.com GarageBand and Pro Tools. Source: CheatSheet.com Source: Gizmodo.com Source: Lifehacker.com

THE WEEK February 10, 2017 30 Best properties on the market This week: Homes in Montana

1 X Bozeman Built in 1906, this four-bedroom brick mansion sits in the historic Bon Ton district. The Queen Anne house has tiger-oak details throughout, oversize curved-pane windows, a remodeled kitchen, and a new master suite with a fireplace and a doorway to the upper deck. The exterior features a large covered veranda and a fenced-in, land- scaped yard. $1,650,000. 4 Sally Uhlmann, Pure West 6 Real Estate/Christie’s Montana International Real Estate, 3 (406) 223-5964

1 , 2 5

2 W Bozeman Set outside town on a 41-acre property, this three-bedroom house enjoys views of the Bridger Mountains. Built in 1991, it has gold-limestone floors, old-growth fir timbers, and a great room with a Spanish motif. The property is home to many wild animals and adjoins public lands that extend to Yellowstone Park. $2,795,000. Tim Murphy, Hall and Hall, (406) 587-3090

3 X Hamilton This four- bedroom, custom-built house is part of the Stock Farm Club, a private luxury community in the Bitterroot Valley. The 6,200-square- foot home has handcrafted details, vaulted ceilings, a lower-level master suite, and a great room with a stone fireplace. The 2-acre property features an outdoor kitchen with a fireplace and sits off the 10th tee of a championship golf course. $4,485,000. Dawn Maddux, Glacier/So- theby’s International Realty, (406) 550-4131

THE WEEK February 10, 2017 Best properties on the market 31

4 X Whitefish Built in 1995 and since remodeled, this four-bedroom home offers expansive views of White- fish Lake. Interior details include an open floor plan, timber-frame accents, hardwood floors, and a stone fireplace. Set among trees but close to town, the 1-acre lot features a three- car garage, a large covered deck, and a guest apartment with a kitchen and living space. $1,545,000. Jen Dolan, National Parks Realty, (406) 862-0115

Steal of the week

5 S Big Horn County The Bighorn River Farm’s 166-acre property, just an hour’s drive from Billings, is currently a hunting camp; the refurbished 100-year-old farm- house is its base. The home has a master 6 S Bigfork This three-bedroom 1896 bedroom, a second bedroom, and a bunk house has been completely remodeled area; a modernized kitchen; and a living but retains 19th-century details. Features room with a wood-burning fireplace. include hardwood floors, a large kitchen, The property’s half-mile of frontage on a clawfoot tub, French doors, and a living the Bighorn River provides tailwater room with a woodstove. The 3.7-acre prop- trout fishing; there is also a private boat erty has a large vegetable garden and fruit ramp. The 5-acre pond has abundant trees and borders state land. $350,000. waterfowl. $1,895,000. Jeff Shouse, Live Erin Duval, PureWest Real Estate/Christie’s Water Properties, (406) 586-6010 International Real Estate, (406) 751-5605

THE WEEK February 10, 2017 32 BUSINESS The news at a glance

The bottom line Washington: Trump orders regulatory rollback QAmerican Airlines won’t President Trump pledged to President Trump maintains that install seat-back entertain- massively cut regulations on unnecessary regulations are hold- ment systems on its new businesses with a sweeping ing back economic growth, but is Boeing 737s because some 90 percent of passengers executive order signed this that true? asked Josh Zumbrun now carry their own smart- week, said Brian Naylor in in The Wall Street Journal. The phone or tablet with them NPR.org. The order stipu- Office of Management and on every flight. The screens lates that for every regulation Budget estimates that regulations cost about $3 million to imposed by an executive depart- cost the economy as much as install per jetliner, and the ment or agency, two regulations $110 billion a year, but it also added weight from wiring have to be eliminated, with says they benefit the economy by and bulkier seats makes the exemptions for rules related up to $872 billion. Conservative aircraft less fuel-efficient. A 2-for-1 trade-off The Economist to the military and national think tanks, however, tend to security. Although business groups “applauded conclude that regulations weigh on economic QStarbucks CEO Howard the order,” reducing rules on the books is not a growth. Complicating matters is the fact that the Schultz, who is stepping straightforward process. To repeal a regulation, costs of regulations “are so different from the down in April, has earned federal agencies must go through the same notice benefits, they can be nearly impossible to com- about $553 million in com- pensation since he returned and comment process used to implement new pare.” For that reason, “it’s nearly impossible to as chief executive in January rules. “And that generally takes at least a year.” pin down the payoff” of Trump’s plan. 2008, mostly in the form of equity. Starbucks stock has Economy: GDP growth slowest in five years The economics risen more than 500 percent of kid power during Schultz’s second stint “The U.S. just had its worst year of economic growth since 2011,” Children “have dis- as CEO. said Ana Swanson in The Washington Post. Gross domestic prod- placed dads as rulers Bloomberg.com uct expanded by 1.6 percent in 2016, according to Commerce of the household,” said Department data released last week, “the lowest reading since 2011 QApple reported having a Janet Adamy in The record $246.1 billion in cash and down from an increase of 2.6 percent the prior year.” Economists Wall Street Journal. reserves in the fourth quarter blamed a variety of factors dragging on the economy, including mea- The rise of two-income of 2016, larger than Sri ger business investment, historically low oil prices, and a strong dollar families and the Lanka’s estimated 2016 GDP. hurting exports. “Still, growth of nearly 2 percent puts the U.S. ahead decrease in the number If counted as its own public of many sluggish economies around the world.” of kids have “upended company, Apple’s cash hoard traditional power by itself would be the 13th- Te ch : Apple tops Samsung in smartphone sales dynamics,” according to largest firm in the world. Apple has “reclaimed the throne as the world’s top smartphone research by economists CNBC.com seller,” said Narottam Medhora and Stephen Nellis in Reuters.com. at the University of The technology giant announced this week that it sold 78.3 million Maryland and Indiana iPhones in its first fiscal quarter, up from 74.8 million in last year’s University. A century first quarter, to beat Samsung in quarterly units shipped for the first ago, the father’s role as time since 2011. Samsung sold 77.5 million smartphones in the quar- sole breadwinner gave ter, weighed down by its recall of the Galaxy Note 7. The iPhone sales him decision-making numbers and Apple’s profit of almost $18 billion “both handily beat power. But as women entered the workforce, Wall Street expectations.” they “gained more Retail: Walmart expands free two-day shipping leverage.” That shift, Walmart is “upping the ante” in its retail war with Amazon, said coupled with the aver- QThe average Snapchat age number of children user opens the disappear- Charisse Jones in USA Today. The retailer announced this week that it per household falling ing message-and-video app would offer free two-day shipping to all of its customers, scrapping a by about 0.9 between 18 times a day, according subscription program that was meant to compete with Amazon Prime. 1900 and 2010, resulted to the tech company. Mil- Walmart rolled out Shipping Pass last year, offering customers free two- in kids getting a big lennials, Snapchat’s core day delivery for a $49 annual fee. Now with a minimum purchase of bump in bargaining audience, check their phones $35, any Walmart customer will be able to get nearly 2 million products power. The drop in more than 75 times per day. delivered to his or her home within two days at no extra cost. family size, in particular, Axios.com “reduced competition QSingle women make up Te c h : Cloud computing drives earnings between children for 17 percent of homebuyers Shares of both Microsoft and Google parent Alphabet hit record resources from their in the U.S., compared with highs last week after earnings results that showed strong growth in parents, giving the kids 7 percent for single men, cloud computing, said Alistair Barr and Jillian Ward in Bloomberg more muscle in the according to the National As- .com. Revenue nearly doubled for Microsoft’s Azure, which competes household.” The study’s sociation of Realtors. Single with Amazon Web Services to offer businesses computing power over authors conclude that women have outpaced men the internet. Alphabet’s profit “disappointed” overall, but the com- “in modern advanced in home buying since 1981. pany’s “Other Revenue” category, “which includes cloud computing, societies...children are Bloomberg.com the rulers of the family.”

jumped 62 percent to $3.4 billion in the fourth quarter.” (2) Newscom

THE WEEK February 10, 2017 Making money BUSINESS 33

Student loans: What new lawsuits mean for your loans If you have student loans, there’s a “decent you may be eligible for an income-based chance” you’ve been cheated, said Minda repayment plan that reduces your monthly Zetlin in Inc.com. Navient, the nation’s largest payments to a more affordable amount. This student loan servicing company—with more is what got Navient in trouble. Regulators than 12 million accounts—has been accused say the loan servicer didn’t do enough to in- of ripping off borrowers, in a series of bomb- form borrowers when they were eligible for shell lawsuits filed last week by the Consumer discounts and didn’t properly inform those Financial Protection Bureau and the states who were enrolled that they had to reapply of Illinois and Washington. The student loan every year. Instead, Navient allegedly pushed giant allegedly cost borrowers as much as borrowers into short-term “forbearance” $4 billion in unnecessary interest charges by programs, which allow borrowers to put steering them into inappropriate repayment off payments but don’t stop interest from programs that were cheaper for the company accruing. You should avoid these programs to administer. In other cases, Navient allegedly Borrowers say they were misled. whenever possible. “lost” or misapplied payments for borrowers who paid off their loans in advance, causing them to rack up People who feel they’ve been wronged “have a few options for huge balances, and ignored other borrowers’ requests for help. what to do next,” said Samantha Masunaga in the Los Ange- The company has denied the allegations, saying it’s a victim of les Times. Borrowers can file a complaint with the Consumer the federal government’s hopelessly byzantine student loan rules. Financial Protection Bureau, which may be able to help them Either way, if you have student debt, “now is a good time to get resolve their issue. Those who feel they were wrongly steered into the facts straight” about your loan status. forbearance can call Navient and request a change. “Borrowers also can go to StudentLoans.gov to apply for an income-driven “Staying out of trouble with a student loan servicer starts with repayment plan or to consolidate other federal loans.” But don’t two questions: How much do you owe, and to whom?” said expect a broader crackdown on the student loan industry, said Ron Lieber in The New York Times. Those are often tricky to Shahien Nasiripour and Janet Lorin in Bloomberg.com. With the answer, because the original lender is rarely the company that CFPB’s future an open question under President Trump, investors collects payments. For federal loans, simply sign up for an online are betting Navient will easily weather the current round of law- account through the National Student Loan Data System. For suits. “The day after the election, the company’s stock shot up private loans, check your credit report. If you have federal loans, 17 percent, and even with the lawsuit it’s kept most of that gain.”

What the experts say Charity of the week Tapping an IRA to buy a house in “some basic but often neglected moves The International Money stashed in an IRA can be used to buy that typically enhance returns over time.” If Crane Foundation a house, but you have to pay close a ttention you’ve missed much of the market’s recent (savingcranes to the rules to avoid penalties, said Kimberly rise, feel free to move more money into .org) works to conserve crane Lankford in Kiplinger.com. If you have a Roth stocks so long as you take into account your populations IRA, you may withdraw up to $10,000 in age, goals, and “emotional capacity to ride around the world earnings before you turn 59½ for a first-time out the market’s ups and downs.” This may and protect the home purchase without paying a 10 percent also be a good moment to sell a few equities, wetland ecosystems that the birds call home. Since its inception in 1973, the early-withdrawal penalty. If you’ve had the depending on their valuation and on “how organization has focused on ensuring Roth for at least five years, you don’t have to close you are to retirement.” that conservation efforts benefit both pay taxes on the earnings, either. The rules are crane populations and local citizens’ different with a traditional IRA. You can with- Getting serious about credit card debt livelihoods. Much of the group’s work draw the same amount, “but the money is tax- “If you binged on gifts and entertainment in is in East Asia, home to eight species of cranes, five of which are threatened. able.” The cash can be used for a down pay- December and your card balances are higher Development has put intense pressure ment for you or your kids, grandchildren, or than you were expecting,” now is the time on the region’s water resources, and the parents, but there is a lifetime withdrawal cap to make a repayment plan, said Ann Carrns organization works with local conserva- of $10,000 per person. And the money can be in The New York Times. If you have good tion officials to keep crane populations healthy by securing chains of wetlands used only for a first-time home purchase. credit, you probably have access to zero per- where the birds live and nest. The group cent balance transfer offers, so think about also works to limit the black market in Dow 20,000: An opportunity? shifting your balances to a low-interest card. cranes, by helping to strengthen local Now that the Dow Jones has hit the historic You must make payments on time, though, laws and drawing attention to the trade 20,000 mark, many investors are asking or risk losing the promotional offer. Personal in illegally captured and sold birds. themselves, What’s my next investment loans from online lenders are also “becoming Each charity we feature has earned a move? said Anne Tergesen in The Wall Street more common,” but be sure to research up- four-star overall rating from Charity Journal. “The simple answer that many ex- front fees and what your monthly repayment Navigator, which rates not-for-profit perts give is that most investors should do schedule will be. To keep card balances from organizations on the strength of their little to nothing.” If you are well diversified getting out of hand in the future, use text or finances, their governance practices, and the transparency of their operations. and keeping your costs low, sit tight. But email alerts that let you know when you’re Four stars is the group’s highest rating.

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THE WEEK February 10, 2017 34 Best columns: Business

Issue of the week: Trump’s first weeks unsettle CEOs “The phone calls flew back and forth abandonment of the Trans-Pacific Partner- among the nation’s top chief executives ship trade deal. “And just about everyone over the weekend, all asking the same ques- is afraid of saying anything publicly that tion,” said Andrew Ross Sorkin in The New could provoke presidential ire.” Some firms York Times: How to respond to President even appear to be recycling jobs announce- Trump’s executive order on immigration? ments to get on Trump’s good side, said Even as a storm of popular protest grew, James Peltz and Natalie Kitroeff in the Los most of corporate America found itself play- Angeles Times. Since Election Day, coming a tense game of wait-and-see. A handful panies like Walmart, Sprint, and General of tech executives, like Google’s Sundar Motors have vowed to add or keep jobs in Pichai —himself an immigrant from India— the U.S. Some of the announcements came after executives visited Trump Tower, “and were quick to criticize the order; Starbucks Google’s Pichai; Starbucks’ Schultz CEO Howard Schultz even pledged to hire the implication was clear: Trump’s power 10,000 refugees. But most executives “sought safety in numbers,” of persuasion, or his threats to make the companies’ futures more holding back until their rivals or peers made the first move. And costly,” had prompted big investments in domestic jobs. But in when CEOs did speak out, “few took shots directly at Trump.” several cases, the added jobs had already been planned and even Corporate leaders felt caught between a rock and a hard place, previously announced. That didn’t stop executives from allowing said Bess Levin in VanityFair.com. On the one hand, they don’t Trump to take credit, hoping to “curry his favor.” want to stay silent and risk angering their employees or suffering consumer boycotts. But they also fear the “possibility of stock- The politics of the travel ban are changing executives’ calculus, tanking Twitter tirades from the president if they speak out.” however, said Spencer Jakab in The Wall Street Journal. The companies that have spoken out most forcefully are those that Trump’s first two weeks in office have sent “fear rippling through are most affected, like tech companies that rely on foreigners corporate boardrooms from Silicon Valley to Wall Street,” said with cutting-edge skills. But plenty of other industries—from Ben White in Politico.com. Although many executives remain retail to finance to Big Pharma—depend “heavily on overseas hopeful that the first full-time businessman to become president customers and also foreign government regulators,” and they will usher in the deregulation and lower corporate taxes that he worry that perceived closeness to the White House and its more promised on the campaign trail, they are alarmed by the new ad- controversial policies could eventually “invite formal and infor- ministration’s “erratic approach to policy.” Firms with complex, mal retaliation” abroad. Still, plenty of CEOs remain optimistic, international supply chains have been startled by Trump’s talk said Gillian White in TheAtlantic.com. They’re willing to give of new border tariffs, and exporters who had hoped for more Trump the benefit of the doubt for a little while longer, “even if market access in Asia “see those hopes fading” with the rapid they can’t be certain how it will all shake out.”

An increasing number of U.S. businesses are say- credit- and debit-card payments, and payment apps The shift ing goodbye to cash, said Christopher Mims. Some like Venmo make it easy to order takeout or pay small businesses, like Baltimore coffee shop Park back a friend without ever touching a twenty. As a to a cashless Cafe, have stopped accepting cash after issues with result, the global value of card-payment transactions robberies; others, like salad chain Sweetgreen, which exceeded that of cash transactions for the first time world has 66 locations nationwide, have gone cashless to ever last year; “in the U.S., we crossed that milestone Christopher Mims speed up transaction times. Expect plenty of other in 2004.” And there’s little reason to mourn paper The Wall Street Journal companies to follow suit in the near future. The money’s passing. Criminologists have found that “re- U.S. has been moving toward becoming a cashless ducing the amount of cash in any given area signifi- society ever since the introduction of credit cards in cantly reduces not just theft but also violent crime.” the 1950s, but “it’s only now possible to ditch” cash Cash will probably always be around in some form altogether. Smartphone-connected card readers like or another. But there’s no doubt “we are losing our Square now allow virtually any business to accept cultural attachment” to it.

The stock market doesn’t much care who occupies than most people would have you believe.” The Presidents the Oval Office, said Ben Carlson. “Plenty of ink economy and stock market rarely operate “in lock- has been spilled” analyzing how President Trump’s step,” and the full economic impact of most policy don’t move every tweet and policy could ultimately affect inves- decisions isn’t felt for years. A president’s stock tors. But history shows this speculation is beside market record also depends on conditions when he markets the point. Going back to Herbert Hoover, every takes office, including interest rates, market valua- Ben Carlson president has experienced “severe corrections or tions, inflation, and unemployment. Presidents can, Bloomberg.com bear markets on their watch.” Likewise, both Re- of course, affect the stock market around the mar- publican and Democratic presidents have enjoyed gins. Sentiment plays a role in investor decisions, for spectacular gains. Since 1853, the stock market in instance, so anything a president can do to get inves- total has returned 1,340 percent under Democrats tors excited about the future helps. But the market’s and 1,270 percent under Republicans. The truth is, performance under any given president “has more to

“presidents have far less control over the markets do with the luck of the draw than anything else.” (2) Newscom

THE WEEK February 10, 2017 Obituaries 35 The sitcom star who defined the modern career woman

Mary Tyler For generations of women, Mary Thomas thought too pert to belong to his onscreen Moore Tyler Moore was a symbol of lib- child. But while casting The Dick Van Dyke Show 1936–2017 eration. On The Mary Tyler Moore in 1961, executive producer Thomas asked, “Who Show, which ran from 1970 to 1977, was the kid we liked so much last year, the one with the comic actress played Mary Richards, a spunky, the three names and the funny nose?” single TV news producer who embodied a new As Van Dyke’s “slightly scatterbrained wife,” said American archetype: the independent career woman. The Washington Post, Moore held her own among But her perky go-getter TV image, which included a cast of comedy vets. After Van Dyke wrapped the one of the broadest, toothiest smiles in showbiz, sitcom in 1966, Moore and her second husband, disguised a succession of personal tragedies. Moore ad agency exec Grant Tinker, formed a production endured illness, alcoholism, and devastating loss, company, MTM Enterprises, and developed The yet she never lost her comic edge. “Three things Mary Tyler Moore Show. With sharp scripts and have helped me successfully go through the ordeals an expert ensemble that included Ed Asner, Valerie of life,” she once quipped. “An understanding hus- Harper, and Betty White, it was indelible, from band, a good analyst, and millions of dollars.” the catchy opening theme (“Who can turn the world on with her Born in Brooklyn, Moore moved with her family to Los Angeles smile?...”) to its sign-off, a meowing MTM kitten. When the show when she was 8 years old, said The New York Times. Her father, a ended in 1978, MTM was thriving—it had already produced The clerk, and her mother, a homemaker, “were both alcoholics,” and Bob Newhart Show and would go on to make TV hits including Moore chose to live with her aunt in L.A., only seeing her parents Hill Street Blues and Remington Steele. Moore began to stretch her on special occasions. She landed her first showbiz job at age 17, acting range and was nominated for an Oscar for her “frosty matri- starring in appliance commercials as “Happy Hotpoint, a caped arch in 1980’s Ordinary People, Robert Redford’s directorial debut.” dancing elf in a body stocking.” The following year, she married But as her career hit new highs, Moore’s private life was racked with her first husband, cranberry products salesman Dick Meeker, with pain, said The Guardian (U.K.). Her younger sister “died of a drug whom she’d have her only child, Richie. overdose in 1978.” Two years later, Moore’s drug-addicted son “shot Moore scored her first regular acting role in 1959 as “Sam, the himself and died, in what appeared to be an accident”; in 1981, she sultry-voiced telephone operator” in Richard Diamond, Private divorced Tinker. She was already struggling with alcoholism; now Detective, said the Los Angeles Times. She was never seen in her addiction became almost all-consuming. “I’d gone over an edge,” the show, save for provocative close-ups of her legs and mouth. she said. “I didn’t know what to grab for steadiness.” Five weeks at Frustrated, she requested more screen time—and was axed after 13 the Betty Ford clinic in 1984 brought sobriety; a 33-year marriage episodes. Small TV parts followed, and then Moore auditioned for to cardiologist Robert Levine, whom she wed in 1983, brought hap- the role of Danny Thomas’ daughter on his sitcom Make Room for piness. “It has been a wonderful life,” Moore said in 1995. “There Daddy. She missed out “by a nose: her own,” which the large-nosed are very few things I would go back and do differently.”

The British actor who made outsiders his specialty

John With a gravelly voice and a craggy Man for All Seasons. Like many a British actor of Hurt face that made him look older than his the era, “Hurt was known as a tippler,” said The 1940–2017 years, John Hurt had a natural talent New York Times. He partied with fellow hell-raisers for playing society’s outcasts. In 1975’s Peter O’Toole and Richard Harris, and his booz- The Naked Civil Servant, the British actor starred as ing ended at least one of his four marriages. While the flamboyant gay author and raconteur Quentin filming Midnight Express, Hurt claimed, he got into Crisp, who helped advance the acceptance of homo- character by drinking three bottles of wine a day. sexuality in the U.K. He earned his first Oscar nomi- That film raised his profile in Hollywood, but his nation for his supporting role in 1978’s Midnight next movie, 1979’s Alien, would make him a cult fig- Express, playing a cynical heroin addict abused by ure, said The Daily Telegraph (U.K.). His character, Turkish prison guards. Two years later, Hurt was Kane, endures “one of cinema’s most memorable— nominated for another Oscar for his portrayal of and grisly—death scenes” when a baby alien bursts the cruelly deformed but dignified Joseph Merrick in from his chest, an iconic movie moment Hurt would The Elephant Man. “I have done quite a lot of out- parody in the 1987 Mel Brooks spoof Spaceballs. “Other roles were sider figures,” he said in 2008, “but then drama is all about them. still more physically demanding.” To transform into The Elephant Hamlet isn’t exactly one of the crowd, is he?” Man’s Merrick, who suffered from a condition that enlarged his Born in Chesterfield in northern England, Hurt endured a tough head and twisted his musculature, Hurt had to sit in the makeup childhood, said The Washington Post. His father, an Anglican chair for eight hours a day. His “prolific, eclectic career continued priest, and his mother, an engineer, were “distant and severe,” and through the ’90s and 2000s,” said The Guardian (U.K.). Hurt he was sexually abused at boarding school. Hurt found refuge worked with art house directors like Jim Jarmusch (Dead Man) and in acting, winning a scholarship to London’s Royal Academy of Lars von Trier (Dogville) while making outings in blockbusters like Dramatic Art and later performing in the West End with the Royal Contact and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Shakespeare Company. “Singled out by theater critics for his mag- He refused to take his profession too seriously. “Acting is just a netism,” Hurt secured a breakout movie role as the treacherous rather more sophisticated way of playing cowboys and Indians,” he

Everett Collection (2) Everett Richard Rich in the Oscar-winning 1966 Thomas More biopic A said. “If you pretend well enough, the audience will believe you.”

THE WEEK February 10, 2017 36 The last word The world’s top feather detective As the only criminal forensic ornithologist in the U.S., Pepper Trail helps build cases against bird smugglers and poachers, said writer Chris Sweeney. His mission: Protect rare birds by identifying them in death.

EPPER TRAIL IS and with minimal the first to admit damage to the colorful Phe has an unusual plumage—led Trail to skill set. Give him a suspect that they had single feather or a small been gently squeezed to fragment of a claw or a death one by one in a cooked hunk of breast human hand. meat, and he’ll tell you Trail didn’t know the species of bird from what to make of them. which it came. As the “When they first world’s leading criminal appeared, it was like, forensic ornithologist, ‘Holy crap, what in the Trail is asked day in world is this?’” he says. and day out to perform A special agent had these exact tasks. Over obtained the birds dur- the past 18 years he has ing an undercover buy assisted with hundreds from a man who was of investigations, testi- smuggling them in from fied in federal court Mexico. Following pro- 15 times, and handled tocol, Trail unwrapped more bird carcasses the birds from their cer- than anyone should. emonial garb, identified “All birders have life the different species, lists,” Trail says. “I have Trail in his lab. He handles more than 100 cases every year. and filed the necessary a death list.” a year, involving well over 1,000 pieces of paperwork. A year later, another shipment Trail isn’t joking. He opens a file on his evidence—attests to the fact that this little- arrived. And then another. The victims computer and scrolls through a list of known arm of law enforcement plays a spanned at least 10 species, including violet- 750 species of dead birds he has identi- critical role in conservation. crowned, magnificent, and blue-throated fied throughout his career. The decor of hummingbirds—dazzling border species his work space at the National Fish and Sometimes Trail receives a blob of black that attract birders to southern Arizona Wildlife Forensics Laboratory in Ashland, sludge from an oil pit containing a decom- each year. Ore., blends bird-nerd kitsch with macabre posed bird and has to extract the feathers, restore them, and ID the species. Other As familiar as Trail is with death, these relics of closed cases. A “Waddling Penguin hummingbirds pack an emotional punch. Pooper” wind-up toy sits on a bookshelf times he gets the smashed remains of an animal demolished by a wind turbine. “Their very tininess makes them delightful still in its original packaging. Atop a fil- and charming. Their extraordinary flying ing cabinet is a confiscated necklace made He has investigated high-end artifacts smuggled into the country—an indigenous ability makes them impressive and awe- from the claws and skull of a cassowary. inspiring,” he says. “Our power compared Nearby is a long, sleek feather ripped from Amazonian crown made from curassow body feathers, toucan throat feathers, and to their power is so great that it seems par- an Andean condor wing and attached ticularly perverse and cruel to kill them.” to a pin that customs agents seized from scarlet macaw tail feathers, for example— a polka dancer coming into Chicago. and cheap dream catchers peddled at tourist At age 63 Trail has identified enough dead “There’s actually a trade in condor feathers traps across the Southwest. The findings go birds for a lifetime, and he is looking at the from Peru to Germany to decorate polka both ways; the evidence in question might prospect of retirement with greater fond- hats,” Trail says. be made from perfectly legal turkey feath- ness. More uplifting pursuits surely await ers or the feathers of a protected sub-adult the gentle soul who in his downtime pens If a Fish and Wildlife agent ends up work- golden eagle. award-winning poetry and dresses up as ing a case that involves any sort of bird Charles Darwin to deliver scientific lectures. part, there’s a good chance the evidence will In 2013 Trail received a shipment of 43 land on Trail’s desk for inspection. Because hummingbirds. The carcasses, which were But at the moment, Trail’s retirement would not all birds are protected equally, his IDs each about the size of an index finger, had spell disaster for the only wildlife-forensics play an important role in the legal process been dried out and stuffed into red paper lab in the world. “Pepper is one of a kind,” that helps agents and prosecutors deter- tubes that were decorated with matching says Ken Goddard, director of the lab. “If mine what laws are being broken and what satin tassels. Accompanying each was a something happens to Pepper, we’re SOL.” charges can be brought against the perpe- Spanish-language prayer meant to invoke EPPER TRAIL DIDN’T set out to make a trators. It should come as no surprise that the mystical powers of la chuparosa, a name for himself in the dark world of ornithological forensics is an exceedingly colloquial Mexican name for the hum- Pavian-associated crimes. He was born obscure career path. The field didn’t even mingbird, in order to help a man find his in Virginia—his great-grandfather was Paris exist until the 1960s. Yet the size and scope true love. That the animals were intact— Pepper Trail, and his great-uncle was Peach

of Trail’s caseload—more than 100 cases no birdshot wounds, no decapitations, Trail—but grew up in the Finger Lakes (2) Fowlks Tom

THE WEEK February 10, 2017 The last word 37 region of New York. A boyhood spent found at oil-production sites—Trail col- in things like herbal remedies and religious exploring the outdoors and admiring wild- lected the data, crunched the numbers, and trinkets. “It’s not hard to find them,” says life led to a degree in biology and a Ph.D. in published the most comprehensive scientific Markley, whose investigations have focused ornithology from nearby Cornell University. review of the issue, estimating that upward on the Dallas area. The charms are similar As a young ornithologist Trail plodded of 1 million birds perish in these pits each to a rabbit’s foot in American culture—carry through South American rain forests in pur- year, the vast majority of which are pro- it and good fortune will follow, though suit of the Guianan cock-of-the-rock. Then tected species. Moreover, Trail has devised chuparosas appear to be specifically for he strung together a few postdocs, which and documented a method for determining amorous pursuits. Markley has been told eventually landed him and his family in an eagle species based solely on the curva- that they are sold to help soothe the heart- American Samoa. Island life was a forma- ture of detached talon fragments. “He is a break of grieving widowers and help adul- tive experience, but with two young sons, scientist in the fullest sense of the word,” terous Romeos avoid chance encounters priorities shifted, and Trail and his pedia- says Ed Espinoza, deputy director of the between their wives and mistresses. Mostly, trician wife moved to Ashland, a crunchy forensics lab. though, they’re meant to help lonely-hearted college town in southern Oregon world- singles find their soul mates. famous for its Shakespeare festival. “The Trail worries that the black market for old Samoa-to-Ashland routine,” Trail jokes these love charms may be vast. In Mexico, of the transition. where the spiritual legacy of hummingbirds The job market has never been friendly to stretches back to the Aztecs, the trade ornithologists, so Trail split time during appears robust. Among the more troubling those first years back in the States picking clues he has come across is a small sticker up contract work, raising his sons, and on the packaging of some of the charms writing a sci-fi eco-thriller for young adults. that says “Hecho en Mexico,” or “Made in Out of the blue one day in 1998 he received Mexico,” a sign that there is some sort of a call from the National Fish and Wildlife commercial-scale operation. Forensics Laboratory, which happened As for how many hummingbirds are killed to be a short drive from his home. The each year, Trail can’t yet hazard a guess lab’s first and only ornithologist had left because the trade is so new to investigators suddenly and cases were piling up—they and information is hard to come by. In the needed a stopgap and wanted to know if A chuparosa charm, for help finding love only known study of the trade, researchers Trail was available for a few months. counted 655 charms during visits to Mexico N THE CHAIN of command of wild- What started out as a temporary gig has life law enforcement, Trail occupies a City’s Sonora Market. Many of the vendors blossomed into a nearly two-decade-long unique space. He doesn’t chase down interviewed for the study said the birds are I killed by slingshot and collected from the career. The forensics lab where Trail spends the bad guys or trek around collecting clues. his days is an impressive facility equipped to Instead he enters the fray in the middle of states near the center of the country, includ- analyze whatever evidence Fish and Wildlife an investigation, identifies the evidence, and ing Querétaro, Hidalgo, and Puebla. special agents can uncover, whether it be then moves on to the next case. Oftentimes Trail knows all too well that fighting any illegal timber or a purported aphrodisiac he is intentionally kept in the dark with type of wildlife trade comes with logisti- made from bear gallbladders. There is a bal- regard to the investigation’s details so that cal, financial, and cultural challenges. He listics expert on staff, as well as genetics and the circumstances of the alleged crime can’t has begun collaborating with Mexican pathology departments, an entire biosafety influence his scientific judgment. Rarely ornithologists who know of chuparosas but level-3 lab, and DNA-sequencing technol- does he have the bandwidth to follow a have never considered them a conservation ogy that seems fit for an episode of CSI. case long enough to learn whether or to issue. Meanwhile, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Trail’s tactics, however, are decidedly more what extent the perpetrators are prosecuted. Service has only 250 or so special agents, analog. He’s a morphologist who makes Every once in a while, though, a case will which makes it difficult to devote resources identifications by carefully studying and be so perplexing or so unsettling that Trail to the problem. comparing anatomical characteristics of can’t help but lose himself in it. Take the Trail doesn’t know for sure when he is different bird parts. In most cases, this chuparosas, for example. The most recent going to walk away from the forensics approach is not only faster and cheaper shipment of the hummingbird charms, lab, but he’s hoping that the service soon than booting up the sequencers and calling which remains under active investigation, hires his replacement so he has at least a the genetics team, it’s also equally effective. arrived at his office in February 2015. year or two to share the wisdom he has It has to be. Much like forensic evidence Because hummingbirds are protected by the gleaned from the many cases that have in a murder trial, the science behind Trail’s Migratory Bird Treaty Act, Trail has been passed across his desk. For a man who has work needs to withstand the scrutiny of working closely with special agent James devoted his career to protecting birds by aggressive defense attorneys, diligent judges, Markley in hopes of digging up everything identifying them in death, a sense of final- and impartial juries. they can on the trade to understand its size ity can seem elusive. “There are a couple While from the outside the job can look and impact. “It’s pretty much unknown of trade items that I’ve come across in my like it’s all gloom and doom, the analyti- among U.S. ornithologists that this trade career that I feel are a little bit unresolved cal rigor it demands nourishes and inspires even exists,” Trail says. or that I would like to have some closure Trail’s inner scientist. Patterns in his case- Based on what they’ve seen so far, Trail and on,” Trail says. “One is the chuparosas.” load have proven to be good fodder for Markley have concluded that the birds are research pursuits. For instance, after iden- killed and packaged in Mexico, then smug- Excerpted from an article that originally tifying thousands of birds that had died in gled into the United States, where they are appeared in Audubon magazine. Reprinted oil pits—pools of runoff and waste that are sold at botanicas, small shops that specialize with permission.

THE WEEK February 10, 2017 38 The Puzzle Page

Crossword No. 394: Numbers Game by Matt Gaffney The Week Contest 12345 678910111213 This week’s question: A new amendment to Alaska’s 14 15 16 divorce law allows judges to assign joint custody of pets and requires courts to take “into consideration the well- being of the animal.” Please come up with an advertising 17 18 19 slogan for a divorce lawyer who specializes in dog and cat custody cases. 20 21 22 23 Last week’s contest: Convicted Ponzi schemer Bernie 24 25 26 27 28 Madoff has reportedly bought up every packet of Swiss Miss hot chocolate at the North Carolina penitentiary 29 30 31 where he’s serving a 150-year sentence, and is now sell- ing the packs for a profit to other inmates. What would be 32 33 the name of a Hollywood prison film based on Madoff’s latest racket? 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 THE WINNER: “Crimes and Swiss-Missdemeanors” Tom Brasek, Wilmette, Ill. 41 42 43 SECOND PLACE: “Jailhouse Choc” —Ken Kellam III, Dallas THIRD PLACE: “One Flew Over the Cocoa’s Nest” 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 Earl Weinmann, Northfield, Minn.

51 52 53 For runners-up and complete contest rules, please go to theweek.com/contest. 54 55 56 57 How to enter: Submissions should be emailed to [email protected]. Please include your name, 58 59 60 61 62 address, and daytime telephone number for verifica- tion; this week, type “Pet attorney” in the subject line. 63 64 65 Entries are due by noon, Eastern Time, Tuesday, Feb. 7. Winners will appear on the Puzzle Page 66 67 68 next issue and at theweek.com/puzzles on Friday, Feb. 10. In the case of iden- tical or similar entries, the first one ACROSS 59 Feb. 5 event, whose 33 Letter shaped like a received gets credit. 1 Reliable Roman numerals are trident WThe winner gets a one-year 6 Problems not the initials of this 35 Apple product subscription to The Week. planned for puzzle’s theme entries 36 Taboo act 11 The ___ State (Idaho) 63 Letter before dee 37 Attorney’s gp. 14 Become prominent 64 Mother of Ronald 38 Legendary Pittsburgh 15 Bisected peninsula Lauder coach Sudoku 16 Movie that got Will 65 Attach, in a way 39 Make deals with the Smith a Best Actor 66 Bobby on the ice D.A. Fill in all the boxes so that nomination 67 Richard who partnered 40 Driver’s license datum each row, column, 17 Part of Manhattan or with Alvah Roebuck 43 Virginia Woolf’s real and outlined Baltimore in 1886 first name square includes 19 Chorus syllables 68 Unswerving gaze 44 Chilean white all the numbers 20 Historical period 45 Comparatively creepy from 1 through 9. 21 Voice whose name DOWN 46 eBay participant means “high” 1 Deli hangers 47 2-2, e.g. Difficulty: hard 22 Color of old 2 Novel 48 Forms a large group photographs 3 Writers, editors, etc. 49 Gotchas on Halloween 24 Thespian Sorvino 4 Suffix for social 50 Low-___ diet 26 It’s south of its sound 5 Creme ___ creme 52 Positive attitude 29 Having trouble 6 Alternative to a lift 56 Poker winnings 31 Squeaking, perhaps 7 Off 60 Take advantage of 32 Avant-garde Erik 8 Palindromic 61 Org. with fundraisers 33 Supporting constellation 62 Verbally amusing 9 Toothpaste type person 34 Prudential purchase Find the solutions to all The Week’s puzzles online: www.theweek.com/puzzle. 41 Me, in Marseille 10 Puts forth a command 42 Victorious shout 11 Close female friend 44 Wedding toaster 12 First name in Donald’s ©2017. All rights reserved. 49 Made a profit outside cabinet The Week is a registered trademark owned by the Executors of the Felix Dennis Estate. The Week (ISSN 1533-8304) is published weekly except for one week in each the stadium 13 Botch the arithmetic January, July, August and December. 51 Chrysler savior 18 King or Macpherson The Week is published by The Week Publications, Inc., 55 West 39th Street, New York, NY 10018. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y., and at additional 53 Sneaker string 23 Gin man Whitney mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send change of address to The Week, PO Box 25 “Tell me another 62290, Tampa, FL 33662-2290. One-year subscription rates: U.S. $75; Canada $90; 54 City on the Rhone all other countries $128 in prepaid U.S. funds. Publications Mail Agreement No. 55 Instrument on cans of one!” 40031590, Registration No. 140467846. Return Undeliverable Canadian Addresses 27 Authority to P.O. Box 503, RPO West Beaver Creek, Richmond Hill, ON L4B 4R6. Guinness The Week is a member of The New York Times News Service, The Washington Post/ 57 Gov. or sen. 28 “Are you ___ out?” Bloomberg News Service, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services, and subscribes to The Associated Press. 58 Zippo 30 Opening kickoff tool H M O R S

THE WEEK February 10, 2017 Sources: A complete list of publications cited in The Week can be found at theweek.com/sources.