The coronavirus pandemic has lead to major changes for homes and businesses, including more frequent use of chemicals and disinfectants. While they do help, some can be dangerous to human health and the environment. Professor John Meeker , senior associate dean for research at the University of Michigan's School of Public Health, spoke with WEMU's David Fair about how best to safely use these products on "Issues of the Environment."

Maintaining water service and safety remains an essential service during Governor Whitmer's "Stay Home, Stay Safe" executive order. In this week's "Issues of the Environment," WEMU's David Fair talks with the manager of Ann Arbor's water treatment services, Brian Steglitz, about managing the system to filter out virus and chemical contamination.

Many aspects of daily life have been dramatically changed due to COVID-19, and public transportation is certainly no exception. Although services like the Ann Arbor Area Transportion Authority (AAATA) promote a cleaner environment, they still have financial obligations and public health matters to consider. In this week's "Issues of the Environment," AAATA CEO Matt Carpenter explains how his organization and other forms of public transit in Michigan are adapting to the pandemic in a conversation with WEMU's David Fair.

The Centers for Disease Control continues to recommend wearing gloves and masks while in public. More and more people are following recommended guidelines. However, getting rid of those personal protective equipment (PPE) items is often being done improperly. In this week's "Issues of the Environment," WEMU's David Fair talks with Washtenaw County Public Works manager Theo Eggermont about proper disposal to protect public health and the environment.

Today marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. A group of environmentally aware and concerned students at the University of Michigan formed the group ENACT during a rather heady time on campus in 1969. Through activity and organization, it led to the first-ever Earth Day in 1970. In Part 1 of a special, Earth Day edition of "Issues of the Environment," WEMU's David Fair caught up with David Allan to look back at the five decades since that event. Allan was a founding member and co-chair of ENACT and an organizer for the first Earth Day.

Today marks the 50th Earth Day in the United States, which traces its origins to Ann Arbor. Normally, there would have been a huge celebration, but the coronavirus pandemic has put a halt to that. For Part 2 of a special, Earth Day edition of "Issues of the Environment," WEMU's David Fair spoke with Jonathan Overpeck, dean of the U-M School for Environment and Sustainability. They discuss an online celebration of Earth Day and look ahead to what the future may hold.

Food production has been seriously disrupted to the coronavirus pandemic. It has forced producers, including dairy farmers, to dispose of more of their supplies, which has led to more food waste. Joe Diglio, president/CEO of the Michigan Milk Producers Association, has a conversation with WEMU's David Fair about how the problems are being addressed in this week's "Issues of the Environment."

About 14% of Michigan's population is African American. Roughly 40% of COVID-19 fatalties are in the African American community. It is an alarming statistic. Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist heads the state's Coronavirus Task Force on Racial Disparities. He joined WEMU's David Fair and Michigan League of Conservation Voters executive director Lisa Wozniak to discuss what is being done to address the immediate crisis. He also highlights the longer term issues that will need to be addressed and what the role of the task force will be to that end.

It's been forecast that this spring will be quite wet. That could bring flooding to portions of Washtenaw County. Washtenaw County Water Resources Commissioner Evan Pratt joined WEMU's David Fair to discuss planning for such issues and the proactive nature of work already underway on this week's "Issues of the Environment."

Apple, Amazon, Alphabet (which owns Google), and Facebook—known in the tech world as the Big Four—are among the largest and most profitable companies in the world, and they’ve been accustomed to the laxest of oversight from Washington. But the climate may have shifted in a significant way. The Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Justice, and the House Judiciary Committee are all investigating different aspects of the Big Four; Elizabeth Warren has made breaking up these companies a cornerstone of her Presidential campaign. Sue Halpern, a New Yorker contributor, sounds a cautious note about these developments. Current antitrust law doesn’t well fit the nature of these businesses, and breaking up the companies will not necessarily solve underlying issues, like the lack of privacy law. In a twist, Halpern says, the Big Four and now asking the federal government for more regulation—because, she explains to David Remnick, the companies’ lobbyists can sway Washington more easily than they can influence state governments like California, which just passed a rigorous data-privacy law similar to the European Union’s. “They’re being called to account, they have to do something,” she notes, “but they want to direct the conversation so that, ultimately, they still win.”

It’s hard to recall a newly elected freshman representative to Congress who has made a bigger impact than Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Her primary victory for New York’s Fourteenth District seat—as a young woman of color beating out a long-established white male incumbent—was big news, and Ocasio-Cortez has been generating headlines almost daily ever since. Practically the day she took her seat in Congress, Ocasio-Cortez became the hero of the left wing of the Democrats and a favored villain of Fox News and the right. She battled Nancy Pelosi to make the Green New Deal a priority, and has been involved with a movement to launch primary challenges against centrist or right-leaning Democrats. Like Bernie Sanders, she embraces the label of democratic socialism and supports free college education for all Americans. She has called for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She joined David Remnick in the New Yorker Radio Hour studio on July 5th, just after her trip to the border to examine migrant-detention facilities. Remnick and Ocasio-Cortez spoke about why she courted controversy by referring to some facilities as “concentration camps”; why she thinks the Department of Homeland Security is irredeemable; and whether Joe Biden is qualified to be President, given his comments about colleagues who supported forms of segregation. “Issues of race and gender are not extra-credit points in being a good Democrat,” she says. “They are a core part of the ... competencies that a President needs. . . . Where are you on understanding the people that live in this country?”

Maggie Gyllenhaal’s first starring role was in the 2002 movie “Secretary,” a distriburbing romantic comedy about a troubled woman in a sadomasochistic relationship with her boss. Since then, Gyllenhaal has continued to push the boundaries of how sex is depicted onscreen as an executive producer and star of “The Deuce,” HBO’s drama about the beginnings of the porn industry. In a conversation with The New Yorker’s Lauren Collins, Gyllenhaal talks about her character, Candy, who leaves street prostitution to perform in porn and eventually makes her way into directing. Since the show premièred, the #MeToo movement has shed light on how women are asked to compromise themselves, not only in sex work but in entertainment and almost every other walk of life. “Many women have been asked to compromise themselves, and have done it,” Gyllenhaal tells Collins, admitting that she has moments of thinking, “Oh, my God. How did I laugh at that joke or stay in that meeting or put that shirt on?” Gyllenhaal also talks about adapting a novel by Elena Ferrante, who gave her the film rights—on condition that Gyllenhaal direct the adaptation herself. 

The third and final season of “The Deuce” begins in September, 2019. 

In 2014, a pair of crimes shocked Israelis and Palestinians. The first was the abduction and murder of three Israeli boys by a Hamas-linked group. Then there was an act of reprisal—the torture, burning, and murder of a Palestinian teen-ager named Mohammed Abu Khdeir—by Israeli right-wing extremists. Even by the standards of this conflict, the killings were shocking. 

“Our Boys,” a co-production of HBO and the Israeli Keshet Studios, examines the forces that led to Abu Khdeir’s killing. It is not for the faint of heart, David Remnick says, but the series is as complex and deep a portrayal of the conflict as he has ever seen. Remnick spoke with two of the creators: Hagai Levi, an Israeli Jew, and Tawfiq Abu Wael, a Palestinian living in Israel. Abu Wael tells Remnick why he resisted pressure from activists not to participate in an Israeli production. 

Around the world, the number of measles cases is on the rise. Public health officials in the United States have put some of the blame on "anti-vaxxers," who believe that vaccines have destructive side effects and choose not to vaccinate their children. In some communities, school systems have made vaccinations mandatory, touching off political battles over personal and religious liberty. Nick Paumgarten joins Dorothy Wickenden to discuss the political lessons of the movement for the wider "war on science."

After more than two years of debates and one deadline extension, the United Kingdom is set to leave the European Union on October 31st. Last week, with no Brexit deal in sight, Prime Minister Boris Johnson moved to suspend Parliament for five weeks leading up to that deadline. The move outraged members of Parliament and spurred a revolt in Johnson’s own party, resulting in legislation that may prohibit him from executing a no-deal Brexit. Johnson has called for a general election, though he no longer has the legislative majority he needs to force a vote. Sam Knight joins Dorothy Wickenden to discuss the week in Parliament and what it might mean for the future of British democracy.

The New Yorker’s fiction editor, Deborah Treisman, talks with Salman Rushdie about “Quichotte,” his apocalyptic quest novel. A few years ago, when the four hundredth anniversary of “Don Quixote” was being celebrated, Rushdie reread Cervantes’s book and found himself newly engaged by a much-improved translation. He immediately began thinking of writing his own story about a “silly old fool,” like Quixote, who becomes obsessed with an unattainable woman and undertakes a quest to win her love. This character became Quichotte (named for the French opera loosely based on “Don Quixote”), who is seeking the love of—or, as she sees it, stalking—a popular talk-show host. As Quichotte journeys to find her, he encounters the truths of contemporary America: the opioid epidemic, white supremacy, the fallout from the War on Terror, and more. “I’ve always really liked the risky thing of writing very close up against the present moment,” Rushdie tells Treisman. “If you do it wrong, it’s a catastrophe. If you do it right, with luck, you somehow capture a moment.” At the same time, the novel gives full rein to Rushdie’s fantastical streak—at one point, for instance, Quichotte comes across a New Jersey town where people turn into mastodons. Treisman talks with the author about the influence of science fiction on his imagination, and about his personal connection to the tragedy of opioids. Rushdie’s much younger sister died from the consequences of addiction, and the book is centrally concerned with siblings trying to reconnect after separation.

David Remnick asks five New Yorker contributors about the nascent impeachment proceedings against the President. Susan Glasser, the magazine’s Washington correspondent, notes that Republicans have attacked the inquiry but have not exactly defended the substance of Trump’s phone call to Zelensky. Joshua Yaffa, who has been reporting from Kiev, notes Ukraine’s disappointment in the conduct of the American President; Jane Mayer describes how an impeachment scenario in the era of Fox News could play out very differently than it did in the age of Richard Nixon; Jelani Cobb reflects on the likelihood of violence; and Jill Lepore argues that, regardless of the outcome, impeachment is the only constitutional response to Donald Trump’s actions. “This is the Presidential equivalent of shooting someone on Fifth Avenue,” she tells Remnick. 

Last Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan informed President Trump of his intention to launch a military offensive in northeastern Syria, in an effort to eradicate the Kurdish militias there. Trump agreed to draw down American troops to clear the way for the Turkish army. Though Erdoğan regards those militias as terrorist groups, the Kurds have been close American allies in the battle against ISIS. Trump’s decision was met with harsh criticism by high-ranking Republicans, U.S. military officials, and others. Dexter Filkins joins Dorothy Wickenden to discuss how the incursion into Syria is affecting one of the most volatile regions in the world, and what it could mean for Trump’s Presidency.

On September 23rd, Representative Abigail Spanberger joined six other House Democrats—all from swing districts and all veterans of the military, defense, and intelligence communities—in drafting an op-ed in the Washington Post declaring President Trump a threat to the nation. The op-ed signalled a shift in the position of the moderate members of the House Democratic caucus. The day after the Post op-ed ran, the House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, announced a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump. Spanberger joins Dorothy Wickenden to discuss divisions within the Party, how Democratic candidates can win in 2020, and the Trump debacles in Ukraine and northern Syria.

This week, the House of Representatives voted to move forward with public hearings into whether President Trump abused his office for political gain. House Republicans unanimously voted against the proceedings, and describe the impeachment process as a conspiracy to unlawfully unseat the President. Trump has called the process an attempted coup. Susan B. Glasser joins Dorothy Wickenden to discuss what to expect from the Intelligence Committee’s televised hearings.

Jeff Sessions, then the Attorney General, announced in 2017 the cancellation of the Obama-era policy known as DACA—Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. A number of plaintiffs sued, and their case goes to the Supreme Court next week. The New Yorker’s Jonathan Blitzer spoke with two of the attorneys who will argue for it. The noted litigator Ted Olson is generally a champion of conservative issues, but he is fighting the Trump Administration on this case. He told Blitzer, “It’s a rule-of-law case—not a liberal or conversative case—involving hundreds of thousands of individuals who will be hurt by an abrupt and unexplained and unjustified change in policy.” And Blitzer also spoke with Luis Cortez, a thirty-one-year-old from Seattle who is arguing his first Supreme Court case. Cortez is an immigration lawyer who is himself an undocumented immigrant protected by DACA status; if he loses his case, he will be at risk of deportation. 

This week, after two months of questioning seventeen former and current State Department and White House officials, the House Intelligence Committee released its report on the impeachment inquiry into President Trump. What has the country learned with certainty about how the Administration tried to strong-arm the new President of Ukraine, and about the fictional counter-narrative being spun by the Republican Party? Susan B. Glasser joins Dorothy Wickenden to discuss the strengths and weaknesses in the Democrats’ case for the impeachment of the President.

The current impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump are only the fourth in American history, and William Cohen has been near the center of power for three of them. First, he was a Republican member of the House Judiciary Committee in 1974, when his vote in favor of articles of impeachment helped end the Presidency of Richard Nixon. Twenty years later, as Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Defense, he had to navigate American military policy around the Lewinsky scandal. Cohen is now a Washington power-broker, and he tells The New Yorker’s Michael Luo the story of both sagas and their relation to today’s news. During Watergate, Cohen received death threats for what was perceived as his betrayal of Nixon, and he says that his chances for a Republican leadership position were “finished.” But Cohen implores his G.O.P. successors in Congress to put Constitution above party; otherwise, “this is not going to be a democracy that will be recognizable a few years from now.”

Three weeks ago, members of a Chilean feminist collective called Las Tesis put on blindfolds and party dresses and took to the streets. The festive atmosphere put their purpose in stark relief: the song they sang was “Un Violador En Tu Camino” (“A Rapist in Your Path”). It’s a sharp indictment of the Chilean police, against whom a hundred charges of sexual violence have been lodged since the beginning of the anti-government protests in October. The lyrics also target the patriarchy in general. The song might have remained a local phenomenon, but someone put it on Twitter, and, in the span of a few days, it became the anthem of women protesting sexism and violence throughout Latin America. A few days later, the protest was replicated in Paris and Berlin, and, shortly thereafter, in Istanbul, where it was shut down by police. The New Yorker’s Camila Osorio was recently in Chile and recounts the exciting story of the creation of a global movement.

Four months ago, Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker’s longtime art critic, was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. In this week’s issue of the magazine, Schjeldahl writes a personal history about New York’s downtown art scene in the sixties, how he overcame years of abusing drugs and alcohol, what led him to art criticism, and the trick of finding beauty in cracks in the sidewalk. For the final Political Scene podcast of 2019, Schjeldahl joins Dorothy Wickenden to discuss life beyond politics.

This week, Democratic Presidential candidates met for their final debate before the Iowa caucuses, a few weeks after Trump ordered the targeted killing of the Iranian military commander Qassam Suleimani. They talked about how America’s role in the world is threatened by the President’s erratic—and, in the case of Ukraine, likely criminal—approach to foreign policy. But many voters remain skeptical that Trump can be beaten. Susan B. Glasser joins Dorothy Wickenden to discuss the radical uncertainties of the 2020 race.

Last week, the Senate opened the impeachment trial of Donald Trump. With Republicans standing immovably by the President, the trial is expected to result in Trump’s acquittal. The Framers of the Constitution issued dire warnings about the spectre of “factionalism” and how it could endanger American democracy. Jelani Cobb joins Dorothy Wickenden to discuss the origins of partisanship in American politics and how it’s playing out in arguments about whether the President should be removed from office.

On Monday, at the Iowa caucuses, a new smartphone app was used to report the results from each precinct. The app proved faulty, leading to a catastrophic failure to collect and report vote totals. In theory, advances in voting technology make voting easier and more accessible. In practice, they have introduced new vulnerabilities that can be exploited to suppress or undermine the will of the voters. Sue Halpern joins Dorothy Wickenden to discuss the recent history of voter suppression and malfunctions at polling places and whether the 2020 election can be saved.

This week, the former film producer Harvey Weinstein was convicted on two counts of sexual assault in a New York court. Weinstein, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by more than ninety women, has become an emblem of misogyny in Hollywood, and of the systems that protect wealthy and powerful men from the consequences of criminal misconduct. Rebecca Solnit joins Dorothy Wickenden to discuss whether the Weinstein verdict is a turning point in the #MeToo movement, and what it takes to expose the lies of those in power in business and politics.

This month, in an effort to combat the coronavirus pandemic, arts organizations around the country shut their doors. Theatre productions were cancelled, film premières postponed, gallery openings scuttled. Artists and other creative professionals, many of whom are freelance workers with no health benefits and little access to unemployment insurance, suddenly found themselves with no income. The dire economic circumstances have caused some to search for new creative outlets online, but others face an uncertain future. Emily Witt and Alexandra Schwartz join Dorothy Wickenden to discuss the effect of the coronavirus on arts and artists—and their audiences.

Mitch McConnell was first elected to the Senate in 1984, but he didn’t come to national prominence until the Obama Presidency, when, as the Senate Majority Leader, he emerged as one of the Administration’s most unyielding and effective legislative opponents. In the past three years, McConnell has put his political skills to work in support of Donald Trump’s agenda, despite the lasting damage that his maneuvering is doing to the Senate and to American democracy. Jane Mayer joins Dorothy Wickenden to discuss how and why McConnell, who faces reëlection this year, became one of Trump’s staunchest allies.

Bill McKibben and Elizabeth Kolbert join David Remnick to talk about the twin crises of our time: the coronavirus pandemic and the climate emergency. What can one teach us about the other? During the COVID-19 national emergency, the Trump Administration has loosened auto-emissions standards, and has proposed easing the controls on mercury released by power plants, among other actions. With protesters no longer able to gather, construction on the controversial Keystone Pipeline has resumed. Still, McKibben and Kolbert believe that the pandemic could remind the public to take scientific fact more seriously, and possibly might change our values for the better. “When we get out of detention,” McKibben says, “I hope that it will be a reminder to us of how much social distancing we’ve been doing already these last few decades,” by focussing on technology and the virtual world. In the pleasure of human contact, he hopes, “we might begin to replace some of the consumption that drives every environmental challenge we face."

Three months ago, Kai Wright, the host of WNYC’s the United States of Anxiety, joined David Remnick for a special episode about the effects of mass incarceration and the movement to end it. Now, as the coronavirus pandemic puts inmates in acute and disproportionate danger, that effort may be gaining new traction. Wright and Remnick reconvene to examine the COVID-19 crisis in prison and its political effects. David Remnick also speaks with Phil Murphy, the governor of New Jersey, who has signed an executive order to release certain at-risk inmates from states prisons—the sort of measure that would once have been deeply unpopular and risky. “I haven’t really spent any time on the politics,” Governor Murphy says. “In all the steps we’ve taken, we’re trying to make the call as best we can, based on the facts, based on the data, based on the science.” And Kai Wright interviews Udi Ofer, the head of the A.C.L.U.’s Justice Division, who notes that “the communities that the C.D.C. has told us are most vulnerable to COVID-19 are exactly the communities that are housed in our nation’s jails and prisons,” including a disproportionately older population among inmates. Given the lack of social distancing and, in many cases, substandard hygienic conditions, Ofer says that reducing the inmate population “literally is a life-and-death situation.”

Today on Political Rewind , president of the American Medical Association Dr. Patrice Harris joined us to discuss her observations on how medical professionals are faring as they fight the virus.

Wednesday on Political Rewind , our guest discusses the mental toll of COVID-19. We're joined by Dr. Raymond Kotwicki, the chief medical officer at Skyland Trail, one of the premiere nonprofit mental health treatment centers in the Southeast.

Friday on Political Rewind , Gov. Brian Kemp lifts a shelter-in-place order for many Georgians across the state. His press secretary joins us to discuss the decision. What will the political fallout look like for officials across the country as multiple states begin easing restrictions?

Wednesday on Political Rewind , the coronavirus pandemic is complicating an already arduous budget in Georgia. The continuing cost of the state response, in addition to a loss of revenue and economic activity, has led Gov. Brian Kemp to last week call for significant cuts to all state agencies.

Friday on Political Rewind , a brief look at the two-month timeline that led up to murder charges this week in the case of Ahmaud Arbery. New developments draw into question decision-making at the local level.

My [six-year-old] kid wrote a song called, "I Wonder What's Inside your Butthole" Quite honestly, it slaps. Twitter | Threadreader (Be sure to check out the remixes)

I feel like I got caught with my pants down on this SiP and I don't want it to happen again; but I also don't want to go down a rabbit hole of antisocial paranoia. Can you recommend resources for me?

So... you know what I'm talking about, right?

When this COVID stuff landed, my house was empty of baking supplies, because early spring is keto diet time for me. I had close to no freezer space, because I rarely used my freezer. Thank goodness I happened to have plenty of toilet paper; but that was a relative fluke. And then boom -- all of a sudden -- there's no f'ing flour to be had! It was not clear where or how I was going to GET toilet paper!

I never want to be in that situation again.

What I'd really like is a book, or website, ideally, that will help me think through and weigh priorities about how to Be Readier, going forward; taking into account a generally normal suburban N American lifestyle. I have questions like, what are the kinds of generators, under what conditions will I be glad I had one, and what are the safety tradeoffs? What are the various options for making water drinkable? What stuff has a generally vulnerable supply chain? What are the things I might not have thought of, without which normal life will degrade significantly? (TP! Menstrual supplies! Stuff like that.)

All that said, I am not looking for instructions on how to build a bunker, you know what I'm saying...

I know there are a million prepper websites. I don't want to sift through all of them; and I know many of them will be at a "homesteading" level that is not appropriate for me. So: are there resources you'd recommend?

My wife and I love to garden, and it has become our main recreation during the lockdown. We have a jumble of tools we've bought cheap or been gifted from others, but would like to upgrade to great tools that will last many years. We're happy to pay for quality.

I bought my wife a Felco secateur for her birthday this year, and she has a nice Craftsbury stainless steel transplant spade that I think will last years. The rest of our tools are cheap (like Harbor Freight), or beat up, with a few solid enough shovels from different Home Depot type brands.

What other tools do you like for your garden? We have a small lot (~0.3 acre) and are doing a lot container (indoors and out) and raised bed gardening right now, but tend to our trees and in-ground plantings. We don't have acres and acres or big plantings--just a home hobby garden.

DJ techno/trance mixes - good. Swiss train driver pov videos - good. Swiss train driver pov videos set to techno mixes - double plus good! From Thomas H.

I have discovered a love of a genre of media I cant' really describe. In the past few weeks I've fallen in love with being intrigued/puzzled and I'm seeking more of the experience. It started with Knives Out then straight to Agatha Christie movies, took a detour through the computer games Oxenfree & Outer Wilds, Gone Girl also hit the spot and ended in a glorious late night binge last night of Russian Doll. I am seeking your recommendation for entertainment that scratches that whodunnits/whydunnits/whatdunnits itch.

The entertainment doesn't have to necessarily be who dunnits, though they can be. They don't have to tackle existential issues either, though again they can. I would prefer interesting non traditional characters, or at the very least for the women in them to not be the "prize" if it's an older movie/book. I love me an unreliable narrator. Something you can consume a second time after you've reached the end & see how it was all there all along if only you'd known what to look for. Conclusions don't have to give all the answers or even be happy, but at least end with some sense of satisfaction. Please help me find my. All suggestions appreciated but please, no horror or terror porn or gratuitous violence or gore. ie murders, if they happen, take place off screen or not in great detail.

"I was still shocked by how much had changed, and how quickly." After climbing out of the Grand Canyon, Kim Stanley Robinson reflects on how culture is and may be changing under the impact of COVID-19, from charismatic mega-ideas to societies within societies.

(Previously) (SLNewYorker)

Four functions of markets - "The period from 2008 until now has been a kind of undead neoliberal era. Post Great Financial Crisis, neoliberal ideas have been discredited among much of the public and are actively contested even within governing elites. But, absent consensus on some new set of social heuristics, not much has actually changed. Material interests in the continuity of institutions shaped by neoliberalism remain strong."[1]

Continuity now is broken. When this pandemic is "over" (whatever that means), the undead bones of neoliberal governance may well yet again gather themselves from the chaos and reconstitute the suave, smooth-talking vampire to whose predations we have grown unhappily accustomed.[2] But they may not. We may find ourselves in a period of social experimentation and change.[3] If so, as we diminish (not eliminate!) the role of markets, it is useful I think to understand the variety of functions that markets serve, so that framers of new institutions understand what will be excised, what may sometimes need to be replaced. So. Here are four functions of markets:

1. Markets serve as Hayekian information processors
2. Markets naturalize outcomes, defusing social conflict
3. Markets "flip the incentives" surrounding resource utilization
4. Markets launder history

Obviously, the list is not exhaustive.

• Singapore is a cautionary tale - "The lesson: you can't beat this virus without taking care of your most vulnerable workers."
• 7 things we must do before we open up - "We asked American experts if they thought we could do it. Their answer? None of you are close to being ready."[4]
• GOP conflation of the public interest with corporate/investor interests - "GOP demands to immunize businesses from liability for death and injury due to workplace infection amounts to a very frank acknowledgment that re-opening endangers the life and health of workers and risks broader spread of infection... which implies a view verging on sociopathic class warfare: fatal losses to workers and communities are tolerable but financial losses to the investor class is not."

• The U.S. Needs Way More Than a Bailout to Recover From Covid-19 - "Shore up the markets, sure, but don't stop there. It's time for Congress and the White House to do things that have been unthinkable since JFK's moonshot. It's time to go big."
• Plutocratic grift - "We'll need to reform our political economy of public private parasitism."
• Productive Public-Private Partnering In Times Of Public Crisis - "The American economy has always been 'mixed,' partnering public with private ownership and control. In times of crisis the public role both has to and always grows larger. Here's how to do it now."[5,6] (via)

• Satya Nadella: crisis requires co-ordinated digital response - "We need citizens and customers to demand partnership across sectors."
• See No Evil - "Software helps companies coordinate the supply chains that sustain global capitalism. How does the code work—and what does it conceal?" (via)
• Will the Coronavirus Create a More Progressive Society or a More Dystopian One? - "A progressive turn is certainly possible, but so is its antithesis: a further upsurge in right-wing populism, and the strengthening of antidemocratic forces." (via)

• The Class Politics of the Dollar System - "Managing an international public good." (via)
• Fixing the Bailout Scammers: The Ten Percent Solution - "No one in policy circles actually believes in the market... The people in power believe in using the government to give themselves as much money as possible. Usually they can do this through structuring the market so that money flows upward."[7] (via)
• Workers need financial security and bargaining power - "The fact that progressive policymakers don't automatically and intuitively appreciate the immense advantage of enhanced UI over a paycheck guarantee speaks volumes about their level of awareness of the real lives of low wage workers. These extra dollars will change lives... Left-leaning policymakers should fully leverage enhanced UI to extract maximum financial assistance and maximum bargaining power for lower wage workers as they confront a severe economic downturn, a predatory labor market and rampant disregard for worker health and safety... What workers need now is economic security, financial flexibility and institutional advantages that will allow them to drive a hard bargain."[8]

Terri Windling (03/2020), "Once upon a time in Paris...": "As the vogue for fairy stories evolved in the 1670s and '80s, Madame d'Aulnoy emerged as one of the most popular raconteurs in Paris ... she soon formed a glittering group around her of nonconformist women and men, as well as establishing a highly successful and profitable literary career ... So how, we might ask, did Perrault become known as the only French fairy tale author of note?" Elizabeth Winter (12/2016), "Feminist Fairies and Hidden Agendas": "the term contes de fées ... was coined by ... d'Aulnoy in 1697, when she published her first collection of tales." Volker Schröder (2018-2019): this collection "is often described as 'lost' or 'untraceable'" and its "sequel has become just as scarce"; but d'Aulnoy's tales are available online, and mixed reviews such as those of the Brothers Grimm may call to mind her childhood marginalia: "if you have my book and ... don't appreciate what's inside, I wish you ringworm, scabies ... and a broken neck."

A couple of articles that are free to read online break down specifics of d'Aulnoy's stories. In "A Transformed Woman," part of her occasional column On Fairy Tales at Tor.com, Mari Ness discusses Madame d'Aulnoy's "The White Cat," a story that has also been recommended previously on Metafilter. And in "Early Modern French Feminine Narratives: Subverting Gender Roles and Sexual Identity in Mme d'Aulnoy's Beauty or the Fortunate Knight (1698)," [PDF] Harold Neeman discusses the story also known as "Belle-Belle" (likewise recommended previously on Metafilter).

More general thematic analyses of work by d'Aulnoy and her peers include Bronwyn Reddan's "Scripting Love in Fairy Tales by Seventeenth-century French Women Writers" [PDF] and "Thinking Through Things: Magical Objects, Power, and Agency in French Fairy Tales" [PDF] (the latter available temporarily from Project MUSE) and also Meghan Kort's "Imagining Girlhood in Seventeenth-Century Female-Authored Fairytales."

Works by several other authors writing in French from the 17th C. to the 19th C. illuminate d'Aulnoy's connections and her legacy (often via the collection Four and Twenty Fairy Tales, which is also at Gutenberg):

• Marie-Jeanne L'Héritier (Wikipedia): "The Discreet Princess; or The Adventures of Finetta," as discussed in Mari Ness's "Enchantment and Distrust." L'Héritier has also been credited as the co-author of the queer and/or trans (avant la lettre) romantic fairy tale, "Histoire de la Marquise-Marquis de Banneville," along with Perrault and L'Abbé de Choisy ("Une Collaboration Inattendue au XVIIe Siècle").
• Catherine Bernard (Wikipedia): Inès de Cordüe, which contains the story "Riquet à la houppe," which would later be retold by Perrault in a version available in English.
• Henriette-Julie de Murat (Wikipedia): "Perfect Love"; "Anguillette"; "Young and Handsome"; "The Palace of Revenge"; "The Prince of Leaves"; and "The Fortunate Punishment." Notes. See also Mari Ness's "Imprisonment and the Fairy Tales of Henriette Julie de Murat."
• Catherine Durand (Wikipedia.fr): Les petits soupers de l'esté, ou avantures galantes, avec l'origine des fées, which may only be available in English from Black Coat Press--one of many translations there by science fiction author Brian Stableford.
• Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de La Force (Wikipedia): "Fairer Than a Fairy"; and "The Good Woman." Notes.
• Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve (Wikipedia): "The Story of Beauty and the Beast." Notes. But see also Andrea H. Everett's thesis, Villeneuve's "La belle et la bête" (1740): An Annotated Edition in English. Incidentally, both translations include the surprising second half of the story in which Beauty and the Beast turn out to be cousins.
• Marguerite de Lubert (Wikipedia): "The Princess Camion"; "Princess Lionette and Prince Coquerico." Notes.
• Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont (Wikipedia): "The Prince Désir and the Princess Mignone"; "Prince Chéri"; "The Widow and Her Two Daughters"; "Prince Fatal and Prince Fortuné." Notes.
• Sophie Rostopchine, Countess of Ségur (Wikipedia): "Blondine, Bonne-Biche, and Beau-Minon"; "Good Little Henry"; "History of Princess Rosette"; "The Little Gray Mouse"; and "Ourson." See also Claire-Lise Malarte-Feldman's "La Comtesse de Ségur, a Witness of Her Time" [PDF] ("the adult reader today will find more than the dark sadomasochist that some critics have found"), available temporarily from Project MUSE.
• George Sand (Wikipedia): Légendes rustiques, available at Gutenberg in French, purports to tell local legends in a realist mode, but it also references fairies, ogres, and the fairy tale tradition in France. The version at Gallica features amazing illustrations by her son, e.g. "Les Demoiselles" or "Les Lavandières ou Laveuses de Nuit."

The silver lining of social distancing is that reduced carbon emissions have led to a resurgence of wildlife in human settlements as diverse as London,
Chicago,
Manhattan,
Buffalo,
Indianapolis,
Peterborough,
New Jersey,
Japan,
Scandinavia,
Athens,
Antarctica,
cabbage farms, and
Toronto. Nature is also totally healing on
the Thames,
the Hudson,
other urban rivers,
the ocean floor, and
Crystal Lake. Reduced air pollution means you can even get a better view of
the Moon, or
Zoom. Maybe we were the virus all along?

MeFite odinsdream recently came across some old abandoned police sketch software for Macintosh systems from the 1980s, then wrapped it up in a web-based emulator, and now you can play with it in your browser! Make your own face sketches. [via mefi projects]