The Washington Post National Weekly - March 10, 2019

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‘It’s ‘It’s My My Future Future On The Line’ On The Line’ Seventh-grader’s climate strike grows Seventh-grader’s climate strike grows into a global movement PAGE 12 12 into a global movement PAGE 10

Politics Trump defends his record 4

Nation Migrant crossings surge 9

World Iran’s pigeon racing 11

MARCH 10, 2019 2 SUNDAY, MARCH 10, 2019

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KLMNO WEEKLY KLMNO WEEKLY

THE FIX THE FIX

Are Democrats goinggoing too far Are Democrats tooleft? far left?

A ARON B LAKE

Midwest was less in favor of the idea (also known as Medicare-for-all) than Midwest wasany lessother in favor of the idea (also A ARON B LAKE region. The 2018 data showed 54 percent here is a growing disagreement about known that as Medicare-for-all) than any other of Midwesterners felt itregion. was the government’s Democrats’ 2020 strategy. of the disagreement about The 2018 data showed that 54 percent hereMost is a growing responsibility to provide health care,feltvs. current candidates inDemocrats’ the race have of Midwesterners it was the government’s 2020 strategy. Most of the 58 percent in the South.

The idea that the moved to the left oncurrent major candidates issues. responsibility to provide health care, vs. in the race have Midwest would be even keen on Whether it’s the Green New Deal, single-payer 58less percent in this the than South. The idea that the moved to the left on major issues. the ruby-red South would seem would instructive. health care or even reparations Midwest be even less keen on this than Whetherfor it’sthe thedescenGreen New Deal, single-payer Reparations also appear to be anSouth issue that dants of slaves, these health hopefuls adopting the ruby-red would seem instructive. careare or even reparations for the descenplays particularly poorlyReparations in the Midwest.

A positions once deemed too extreme theirhopefuls are adopting also appear to be an issue that dants of slaves,bythese 2014 YouGov poll showed that just 13 percent party. plays particularly poorly in the Midwest. A positions once deemed too extreme by their of Midwesterners favored descenNow we’re seeing some pushback. Recently, 2014paying YouGovthe poll showed that just 13 percent party. dants of slaves, the lowest support offavored any paying the descenthe governors of threeNow states to pushback. Recently, of Midwesterners we’redecisive seeing some region (albeit within the margin error).the And President Trump’s 2016 — Michigan, dants of of slaves, lowest support of any thevictory governors of three states decisive to GENE J. PUSKAR/ASSOCIATED PRESS a 2016 Marist Collegeregion poll, likewise, showed Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — urged a more (albeit within the margin of error). And President Trump’s 2016 victory — Michigan, PUSKAR/ASSOCIATED PRESS supported the Midwest this idea lesspoll, likewise, showed incremental, practical Pennsylvania approach. Those Former vice apresident a 2016 Marist College and three Wisconsin — urged more Joe Biden campaigns GENE J.that (22 percent) than otherthat regions percentsupported in states seem key to incremental, the Democrats’ 2020approach. on March 6, 2018, Conor Lamb, a the (26 Midwest this idea less practical Those threewithFormer vice president Joe Biden campaigns theLamb, Southa and Northeast, and 30 than percent in regions (26 percent in prospects. And there’s a sense thethe Democrat who2020 won a special election in awith Conor (22 percent) other states seemamong key to Democrats’ on March 6, 2018, the West). in a party’s pragmatists that this leftward shift a conservative-leaning Pennsylvania the South and Northeast, and 30 percent in prospects.

And there’s sense among the western Democrat who won a special election plays particularly poorly in these states. congressional district.conservative-leaning westernAnecdotally, the West). why Demparty’s pragmatists that this leftward shift Pennsylvaniait’s understandable ocrats are concerned about this. They But is there really plays any reason to believe Anecdotally, it’s have understandable why Demparticularly poorly in these states. congressional district. relied on these states ocrats as theirare firewall in theabout this. They have to to be believe exhaustive polling, but the Yale that? Is there something about theany there concerned Butunique is there really reason past, and Trump wall,states ratheras their firewall in the on Climate Communication Midwest and/or the Rust Belt is particurelied that on these there to be exhaustive polling, but the Yalebreached that?

Is that there something Program unique about the Change unexpectedly.

They have alsoand hadTrump successbreached with in 2017 state-by-state larly averse to these ideas?

Or is this just, as Belt past, that wall, rather Programbreakdowns on Climate on Change Communication Midwest and/or the Rust that offered is particumoderate, pragmatic politicians even in rural broader climate change matters.

It found that the party’s leftward larly leaders would argue, unexpectedly.

They have also had success with in 2017 offered state-by-state breakdowns on averse to these ideas? Or is this just, as areas in these states. all four of argue, these states were within one matters. unnecessary timidity? the party’s leftward leaders moderate, pragmatic politicians even in rural broader climate change It found that would It’s also possible theindetails of these percentage point of the on The first thing we can say is that these states areas these states. all national four of average these states were within one that unnecessary timidity? policiesaverage will wind than that ideathese of setting dioxidepoint emissions don’t have extraordinaryThe amounts of we voters It’s alsoless possible that the details of these percentage of the national onup mattering first thing can saythe is that states carbon they allow Trump andpolicies his allies peg these caps on coal power plants.

Theyofwere alsocarbon all who self-identify as “moderate,” relative to amounts willtowind up mattering less than that the idea setting dioxide emissions don’t have extraordinary of voters labelTrump — which within one point to of thecaps national average when other swing states. According to Pew Research they allow andis his allies to peg these on coal power plants.Democrat They werewith alsothe all “socialist” who self-identify as “moderate,” relative a keyaverage GOP talking already.with Andthe maybe it came the idea ofwithin requiring utilities tonational Center data, Wisconsin is tied forstates. the 10thDemocrat “socialist” label — which is one point of the when point other swing According to Pewto Research the Democratic Party’s leftward shift could energy most moderates (36 Center percentdata, of allWisconsin voters), is produce a key GOP talking point already. And maybe it cameoftotheir the idea of requiring utilities to tied for at theleast 10th-20 percent simply hurt energy it across the fromofrenewable sources.

Pennsylvania has the 18th-most (34 percent) theboard.

Democratic Party’s leftward shift could produce at least 20 percent of their most moderates (36 percent all voters), But it’s worth questioning stereotype of board.

These of renewable course, only two and Michigan has the 24th-most (33 has percent). simplythe hurt it across the from sources.

Pennsylvania the 18th-most (34measures percent) are, more-moderate — questioning or the ideas that are similar to These ones inmeasures the massive If we want to throw in and a similar statehas thatthe was But it’s worth the stereotype of are, ofthe course, only two Midwesterner Michigan 24th-most (33 percent). conservative Democrat hails from the Greenstate Newthat Deal, theseto ones close in 2016 but stayed thewho more-moderate Midwesterner — or the ideassuggest that arethat similar in the massive If weblue, wantMinnesota to throw inisa similar wasbut they swath of these land between Philadelphia and who hails from the statesMinnesota are on par with tied for the 29th-most close (32 percent). conservative Democrat Greenswing New states Deal, when but they vast suggest that in 2016 but stayed blue, is other most ofvast these ideas, key it comes to recognizingstates the urgency of dealing But self-identification isn’t a reliable(32 percent). swath of these land between Philadelphia and are on par with otherPittsburgh. swing statesOn when tied foralways the 29th-most appear to be about where you’d expect with climate change. it comes to recognizing thestates indicator. So let’s break this by individual isn’t Pittsburgh.

On most of these ideas, these key urgency of dealing Butout self-identification always a reliable any competitive statestates to be — and Onby the single-payerwith issue, Pew data from policy. appear to beeven about where you’d expect climate change. indicator. So let’s break this out individual supportive of many them.competitive 2014 and 2018 showed that, as asingle-payer region, the issue, The Green New Dealpolicy. is too new an idea for n state to be — and even On the Pew data from of any supportive of many of them. n 2014 and 2018 showed that, as a region, the The Green New Deal is too new an idea for

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CONTENTS

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WEEKLY

CONTENTS 4 8 10 12 16 18 20 23

ON THE COVER Alexandria Villasenor, 13, has 4beenON protesting THE COVER Alexandria POLITICS outside the United 8Nations’ Villasenor, 13, has been protesting THE NATION headquarters since outside the United Nations’ THE WORLD 10December demanding on climate headquarters since December COVER STORYaction12 change. Photo by 16 SARAHdemanding action on climate SCIENCE BLESENER for The18Washington change. Photo by SARAH BOOKS Post/Lily illustration BLESENER for The Washington OPINION 20 Post/Lily illustration FIVE MYTHS 23

3 SUNDAY, MARCH 10, 2019 SUNDAY, MARCH 10, 2019

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WEEKLY

OPINIONS OPINIONS OPINIONS

KLMNO

SUNDAY, MARCH 10, 2019

WEEKLY

OPINIONS

It’s time for Congress to establish the Space Force MIKE PENCE is vice president of the United States.

Since taking office, President Trump’s top priority has been to strengthen our national defense and protect the American people. We have made historic investments to rebuild our armed forces. We have removed unnecessary restraints on our commanders, giving them the rules of engagement they need to defeat our enemies. And to meet the emerging threats in space, the newest war­fighting

BY SCHORR domain, the president has called for the creation of the

BY SCHORR

BY SCHORR U.S. Space Force. ¶ On March 1, the defense secretary released a legislative proposal at the president’s direction to establish the Space Force, within the Air Force, as the sixth branch of the armed forces. This legislation is the first step toward creating a new, separate military department for space in the future, and our Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Princeton economist Alan S. administration will continue working closely with leaders Writing in it the WallObama-Trump Street Journal,Economic PrincetonBoom.” economist S. the Blinder calls “The This Alan may be in Congress on both sides of the aisle to get a bill that Blinder “The Obama-Trump Economic Boom.”

This Alan may be best badcalls label for what may soon become the longest economic Writing in it the Wall Street Journal, Princeton economist S. the best badcalls label for what may soon become the longest economic expansion in it U.S. history.

I am a great skeptic in assigning creates the Space Force to the president’s desk this year.

Blinder “The Obama-Trump Economic Boom.”

This credit may befor the

Who brought us this long boom?

Who brought us this long Who brought us this long boom? boom?

ROBERT J. ROBERT J. SAMUELSON SAMUELSON is a columnist for ROBERT J.The is a columnist for The Washington Post.

SAMUELSON Washington Post. is a columnist for The Washington Post.

expansion in U.S. history.

I am a great skeptic in assigning credit good economic times tomay particular presidents.

But Blinder’s turn for of best bad label for what soon become the longest economic good economic times to spreading particular presidents.

But Blinder’s turn for of capabilities — including phrase has the virtue of the glory between two candidates.

Space is central to our way of a great expansion in U.S. history.

I am skeptic in assigning credit phrase has the virtue of the glorywish between two candidates. antisatellite weapons, airborne ItU.S. iseconomic not, of course, presidents don’t to influence the of life. leadership in that space has good times to spreading particular presidents.

But Blinder’s turn It is not, of course, that presidents don’t wish to influence the lasers, menacing “on-orbit” economy. they help or hurt, they are sure to two claim paternity pioneered groundbreaking new phrase hasWhether the virtue of spreading the glory between candidates. economy.

Whether they help or hurt, they are sure toevasive claim paternity capabilities and forItgood economic news.

President Trump is no exception. technologies; how is not, of revolutionized course, that presidents don’t wish to influence the for good economic news.

President Trump is no exception. hypersonic missiles — that have we communicate, farm economy.

Whethertravel, they help or hurt, they are sure to claim paternity transformed space into a warMore to the point, President He himself for the Trump and trade; supported countless for congratulates good economic news.

President is no exception.

MoreObama to the point, President He congratulates himself for the the fighting domain.

Barack delivered to strong stock (up U.S. jobs; andmarket above all made Barack Obama delivered to strong stock market (up While our adversaries have Trump economy that had $7.7 trillion since his election strongest military in the history Morean to the point, President He congratulates himself for the Trump an economy that had $7.7 trillion since his election weaponized space, too often overcome the worst victory on Nov. 8, 2016, reports of the world stronger still.

Barack Obama delivered to we strong stock market (up overcome worst victory on Nov. 8, 2016, reports have bureaucratized it. psychological effectsthat of the Wilshire Associates) and solid Over the past 60his years, the Trump an the economy had $7.7 trillion since election psychological effects Wilshire Associates) and solid Organizational inefficiencies financial crisis and the job creation (about 200,000 United States has assembled the overcome the worst of the that victory on Nov. 8, 2016, reports financial and the job creation (about 200,000 plague ourcrisis space military accompanying Great Recession. payroll jobs per month over his world’s largest, most psychological effects of the Wilshire Associates) and solid accompanying Great Recession. payroll per month overofhis authorities, war-fighting This was not inevitable.

In the first twojobs years). sophisticated constellation financial crisis and the job creation (about 200,000 This inevitable.

In early the first two years). capabilities, dark was daysnot of acquisition late 2008Recession. and Just how much praiseover Trump military and intelligence accompanying Great payroll jobs per month his dark days of late 2008 and early Just how much praise Trump programs and personnel policies 2009, thenot talk of another Great deserves for this is satellites.

And weperformance have forged the This was inevitable.

In the first two years).

2009, theability talk ofto another Great deserves forto this performance is stifle our meet the Depression not entirely unclear.

When reviewing the technology leverage U.S. power dark days ofwas late 2008 and early Just how much praise Trump Depression was entirely unclear.

When reviewing the our rapidly evolving threats inGreat space. fanciful.

The responses of the figures you should in spaceabove, here on Earth, giving 2009, the talk ofnot another deserves for this performance is fanciful.

Thewas responses of the figures above, you should Responsibility for entirely ourChairman nationalFederal Reserve under remember that in the lastthe two warfighters and intelligence Depression not unclear.

When reviewing Federal Reserve under Chairman remember in the last two security space programs is the spread Ben S. Bernanke and the years thethat presidency, community aObama strategic advantage fanciful.

The responses of figuresofabove, you should Ben S. more Bernanke and the years of thethat Obama presidency, across thanunder 60 departments Treasury Department under the economy also and increasing the agility, Federal Reserve Chairman remember in generated the last two Treasury Department under the economy also generated and resulting in a Secretary Timothy F. the Geithner 200,000 jobs per month. precision and lethality of our Ben agencies, S. Bernanke and years of the Obama presidency, Secretary Timothy F. Geithner 200,000 per month. glaring lack of leadership and contributed significantly to the As for jobs the stock market, it rose military.

Treasury Department under the economy also generated contributed significantly to the As for the stock market, it rose accountability that undermines turnaround. $18.8 trillion from itsspace, low point But thejobs domain of once Secretary Timothy F. Geithner 200,000 per month. turnaround. $18.8 trillion from its low point our combatant commanders and The case for Trump rests in As 2009 to Trump’s election, desolate and uncontested, is now contributed significantly to on the for the stock market, it rose The case forrespect Trump rests in 2009 to Trump’s election, puts our warfighters atthe risk. on his refusal to according to Wilshire.

Given the crowded and confrontational.

As turnaround. $18.8 trillion from its low point his refusal to according to Wilshire.

Given the We’ve known aboutthe this conventional wisdom that different spans, the the Defense Intelligence Agency The case forrespect Trump reststhe on in 2009 totime Trump’s election, conventional wisdom that thethe different time spans, the problem forannual In 2001, economy’s growth rate is comparison inexact, butChina it the detailed in a is recent report, his refusal todecades. respect the according to Wilshire.

Given economy’s annual growth rate comparison is inexact, but it Rumsfeld Space Commission now limited to a modest emphasizes that the stock surge and Russia are aggressively conventional wisdom that the is different time spans, the now limited tolower a modest emphasizes that the stock stated thatfar America’s military 2 percent, than the preceded Trump’s election. developing and deploying economy’s annual growth rateand is comparison is inexact, butsurge it 2 percent, far lower than the preceded Trump’s election. now limited to a modest emphasizes that the stock surge 2 percent, far lower than the preceded Trump’s election.

BY LUCKOVICH FOR THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION

BY LUCKOVICH FOR THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION ANDREW HARRER/BLOOMBERG NEWS

BY LUCKOVICH FOR THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION

Space Force T-shirts sit on display during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Md., on March 1.

post-World War II average of post-World War II of yet intelligence agencies are “not about 3 percent.

Heaverage plowed about percent.

Heaverage plowed arranged or aWar focused to meet ahead 3with sizable tax cutof[our] of post-World II ahead aover sizable taxneeds.” cutI of national security space In $1.5 trillion a decade. (and about 3with percent.

He plowed $1.5 a decade. (and 2008, the Allard Commission manytrillion others) opposed ahead with aover sizable taxthis cutIasof many others) opposed this as(and bluntly observed: one’s risking higher inflation andIin $1.5 trillion over a“No decade. risking higher inflation andas charge.” needlessly expanding already many others) opposed this needlessly expanding already Forfederal too long, these warnings large deficits.

But it gave risking higher inflation and large federal deficits. it gave have been ignored.

ButBut in this the economy an extra shove that needlessly expanding already the economy anwe extra shove that administration, areand no longer bolstered confidence large federal deficits.

But it gave bolstered confidence and just studying the problem — we’re growth.

Sure enough, the the economy an extra shove that growth.

Sure the starting to fix enough, it.about And the Space economy grew 3and percent bolstered confidence economy grew about 3the percent Force is the solution. in 2018. growth.

Sure enough, in 2018.

The defense secretary is be To all these economy grewfactors about 3must percent To all these factors must be establishing a unified combatant added surprising developments in 2018. added surprising developments command forin space that willbe that fit any purely Todon’t all these factors must that don’t fit in any purely centralize the command-andpartisan framework.

Chief added surprising developments partisan framework.

Chief control structure for space among these hasany been low warthat don’t fit in purely among these has been low and fighting.

It will also develop inflation, which has remained partisan framework. Chief inflation, which has remained implement the unique strategy, around 2 percent annually among these has been low — around 2 percent annually —and doctrine, tactics, techniques identical with the Fed’s target. inflation, which has remained identical the Fed’s target. procedures ourhas armed Why inflation beenforces so around 2 with percent annually — Why inflation has been so need to deter and a new subdued is a mystery. identical with thedefeat Fed’s target. subdued is of a mystery. generation threats in warn space.

Economic textbooks Why inflation has been so Economic textbooks warn But ensure the success of our that, astoan approaches subdued is economy a mystery. that, as an economy approaches warfighters intextbooks this new domain, “full employment,” wages and Economic warn “full wages Congress modify Titleand 10 of prices accelerate. that, employment,” aswill anmust economy approaches prices will accelerate. the U.S. Code to establish aand new Companies will increase “full employment,” wageswages Companies will increase wages branch of and our armed forces that is to attract keep workers; prices will accelerate. to attract and keep workers; responsible for organizing, bottlenecks and shortages will Companies will increase wages bottlenecks and shortages will training and equipping space raise prices.

So far, this hasn’t to attract and keep workers; raise prices.

So far, this hasn’t forces, including both combat happened. bottlenecks and shortages will happened. and combat-support functions The current raise prices.

Soeconomic far, this hasn’t for The current economic offensive and defensive space expansion began in mid-2009 happened. expansion began in reason, mid-2009 operations.

For economic that and hascurrent already passed the the 1960s The and has already passed the 1960s defense secretary’s proposal calls boom for longevity (106 months, expansion began in mid-2009 boom foralready longevity (106 on establish amonths, chief of from 1961 toto 1969).

It is the now andCongress has passed 1960s from 1961 to 1969).

It is now staff and undersecretary for approaching the record, the boom for longevity (106 months, approaching the record, the space, and to to(120 consolidate existing 1990s boom months, from from 1961 1969).

It is now 1990s boom (120 months, from approaching the record, the 1990s boom (120 months, from

1991 to 2001). Princeton’s Blinder 1991 to 2001).

Princeton’s Blinder uniformed and civilian personnel cites these threats to the cites these to thewith involved in threats military space expansion: a trade war 1991 to 2001).

Princeton’s Blinder expansion: a trade war with activities the new Space China andinto others; ato stock market cites these threats the China others; stock market Force. crash; and an unexpected jump in oil expansion: a tradeawar with crash; an unexpected in oil Onceand fully established, the prices to $90 or $100 ajump barrel China others; a stock market prices to $90 $100 barrel additional costorwill be ajump roughly (it’s now around $50); a crash; antrading unexpected in oil (it’s now trading around $50); a $500 million per year, collapse consumer or business prices toof $90 or $100 athe barrel collapse consumer or business equivalent of 0.07around percent of oura confidence. (it’s now of trading $50); confidence. entire defense budget.

Realistically, Blinder collapse of consumer ordoubts business Realistically, Blinder doubts Under this proposal, the Space that any of these will soon derail confidence. that any of these will derail Force would be within Air theRealistically, recovery.

“My bet soon isthe that the Blinder doubts the recovery.

“My bet issail that theof Force, similar to the placement current expansion will that any of these will soon derail current expansion willis the Corps within the the through June, setting asail new the Marine recovery.

“My bet that through June, setting abiggest new Navy.

More than any other record,” he writes.

The current expansion will sail record,” he writes. organization, the Air has threat, argues, isThe aForce long shot throughhe June, setting abiggest new threat, he argues, is a long shot been at the vanguard of building — a constitutional crisis record,” he writes. The biggest — aworld’s constitutional the best military space involving that threat, he Trump argues, iscrisis a long shot involving Trump that programs.

Sothe creating the Space destabilizes economy.

— a constitutional crisis destabilizes the Force within theeconomy.

Air Force There is, however, one is the involving Trump that There is, however, onetwo long best way to minimize duplication overlooked danger: The destabilizes the economy. overlooked The of effort eliminate expansions of the post-World Thereand is, danger: however, onetwo long expansions of the post-World bureaucratic inefficiencies.

War II era — the ’60s andtwo thelong overlooked danger: The War II era —of the ’60s and the Just as the Force began ’90s booms —Air were both expansions the post-World ’90s were both within before becoming followed tumultuous crises War booms II the erabyArmy —— the ’60s and the followed by tumultuous a’90s separate military and subpar performance.

After booms — weredepartment, both crises and subpar performance.

After so too will this first step incrises the ’60s boom, the economy followed by tumultuous the ’60s boom, the economy establishing therising Space Force pave succumbed to inflation, and subpar performance.

After succumbed rising inflation, the for atoseparate military which at about 13 the way ’60speaked boom, the economy which at 13The department in theabout future. percentpeaked andto demoralized succumbed rising inflation, percent and Space isdemoralized the next and millions of Americans.

The ’90s whichForce peaked at about 13 the millions of ultimately Americans.

The natural evolution of U.S. tech boom led to’90s the percent and demoralized tech boom to’90s the supremacy in space. led devastating 2007-2009 financial millions of ultimately Americans.

The devastating 2007-2009 financial Today, threats and crisis andthe Great Recession. tech boom ultimately led to the crisis Great Recession. opportunities in if space are It’s and almost as there’s an devastating 2007-2009 financial It’s almost as if there’s an atthe changing more rapidly than unwritten law requiring that crisis and Great Recession. unwritten law requiring that the any other point since the Cold bigIt’s booms be as succeeded by almost if there’s anbig big booms be succeeded by big War. And we must change along busts.

With luck, maybe history unwritten law requiring that the busts.

Withn luck, maybe history with them. won’t repeat itself. n big booms be succeeded by big won’t repeat itself. n busts. With luck, maybe history won’t repeat itself. n

4 22 20

SUNDAY, March,10, 10, 2019 2019 SUNDAY, MARCH

KLMNO WEEKLY

OPINIONS

KLMNO WEEKLY

OPINIONS

It’s time for Congress to establish the Space Force MIKE PENCE is vice president of the United States.

Since taking office, President Trump’s top priority has been to strengthen our national defense and protect the American people. We have made historic investments to rebuild our armed forces. We have removed unnecessary restraints on our commanders, giving them the rules of engagement they need to defeat our enemies. And to meet the emerging threats in space, the newest war­fighting

BY SCHORR domain, the president has called for the creation of the U.S. Space Force. ¶ On March 1, the defense secretary released a legislative proposal at the president’s direction to establish the Space Force, within the Air Force, as the sixth branch of the armed forces. This legislation is the first step toward creating a new, separate military department for space in the future, and our Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Princeton economist Alan S. administration will continue working closely with leaders Blinder calls it “The Obama-Trump Economic Boom.” This may be the in Congress on both sides of the aisle to get a bill that best bad label for what may soon become the longest economic expansion in U.S. history. I am a great skeptic in assigning credit for creates the Space Force to the president’s desk this year.

Who brought us this long boom?

ROBERT J. SAMUELSON is a columnist for The Washington Post.

good economic times to particular presidents. But Blinder’s turn of phrase the virtue of spreading thecapabilities glory between two candidates.

— including Spacehas is central to our way of ItU.S. is not, of course, don’t wish to influence the antisatellite weapons, airborne life. leadership in that spacepresidents has economy. they help or hurt,lasers, they are sure to claim paternity menacing “on-orbit” pioneeredWhether groundbreaking new for good economic news. President is no exception. capabilities and evasive technologies; revolutionized how Trump hypersonic missiles — that have we communicate, travel, farm More to the point, President He himself for the transformed space into a warandcongratulates trade; supported countless Barack Obama delivered to strong stock (up fighting domain.

U.S. jobs; andmarket above all made the Trump economy that have had $7.7 trillion since his election Whileanour adversaries strongest military in the history overcome the worsttoo often we victory on Nov. 8, 2016, reports weaponized space, of the world stronger still. psychological effectsit. of the Wilshire Associates) and the solid have bureaucratized Over the past 60 years, financial crisis and the job creation 200,000 the Organizational inefficiencies that United States(about has assembled accompanying Great Recession. payroll jobs permost month over his plague our space military world’s largest, This was notwar-fighting inevitable. In the first two years). authorities, sophisticated constellation of dark days of acquisition late 2008 and early Just how praise Trump capabilities, military andmuch intelligence 2009, the talk of anotherpolicies Great deserves this is programs and personnel satellites.for And weperformance have forged the Depression was to not entirely unclear.

When reviewing stifle our ability meet the technology to leverage U.S.the power fanciful.evolving The responses the figures you should rapidly threats of in space. in spaceabove, here on Earth, giving our Federal Reserve under remember the last two Responsibility for ourChairman nationalwarfightersthat andin intelligence Ben S. Bernanke and theis spread years of the aObama presidency, security space programs community strategic advantage Treasury Department under the also across more than 60 departments andeconomy increasing thegenerated agility, Secretary Timothy F. Geithner 200,000 month. and agencies, resulting in a precisionjobs andper lethality of our contributed significantly to the As for the stock market, it rose glaring lack of leadership and military. turnaround. that undermines $18.8 fromof itsspace, low point accountability Buttrillion the domain once case for commanders Trump rests on in 2009 to Trump’s election, ourThe combatant and desolate and uncontested, is now his refusal to respectatthe according to Wilshire.

Given the puts our warfighters risk. crowded and confrontational.

As conventional wisdom that the different time spans, theAgency We’ve known about this the Defense Intelligence economy’s growth ratethe is comparison inexact, butChina it problem forannual decades.

In 2001, detailed in a is recent report, now limited to aCommission modest emphasizes that the stock surge Rumsfeld Space and Russia are aggressively 2 percent, lower than the and preceded Trump’s election. stated thatfar America’s military developing and deploying

BY LUCKOVICH FOR THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION ANDREW HARRER/BLOOMBERG NEWS

Space Force T-shirts sit on display during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Md., on March 1.

post-World War II average of about 3 percent.

He plowed intelligence agencies are “not yet ahead with sizableto tax cut [our] of arranged or afocused meet $1.5 trillion over aspace decade.

I (and national security needs.”

In many the others) opposed this as 2008, Allard Commission risking observed: higher inflation andin bluntly “No one’s needlessly expanding already charge.” large deficits.

But it gave Forfederal too long, these warnings the economy an extra have been ignored.

Butshove in thisthat bolstered confidence administration, we areand no longer growth.

Sure the enough, the — we’re just studying problem economytogrew 3 percent starting fix it.about And the Space in 2018.

Force is the solution.

To all these factors must The defense secretary is be added surprising developments establishing a unified combatant that don’t fit any that purely command forin space will partisan framework.

Chief centralize the command-andamong these has for been low warcontrol structure space inflation,Itwhich hasdevelop remained fighting. will also and around 2 percent annually — implement the unique strategy, identical tactics, with thetechniques Fed’s target. doctrine, and Why inflation beenforces so procedures ourhas armed subdued is a mystery. need to deter and defeat a new Economic generation oftextbooks threats in warn space. that, economy approaches Butastoan ensure the success of our “full employment,” wages and warfighters in this new domain, prices willmust accelerate.

Congress modify Title 10 of Companies increase wages the U.S. Codewill to establish a new to attract keep workers; branch of and our armed forces that is bottlenecks for andorganizing, shortages will responsible raise prices. far, this space hasn’t training and So equipping happened. forces, including both combat The current economic and combat-support functions for expansionand began in mid-2009 offensive defensive space and has already passed the the 1960s operations.

For that reason, boom forsecretary’s longevityproposal (106 months, defense calls from 1961 to to 1969).

It is now on Congress establish a chief of approaching the record, for the staff and undersecretary 1990s boom months,existing from space, and to(120 consolidate

1991 to 2001). Princeton’s Blinder cites these threats to the uniformed and civilian personnel expansion: a trade war with involved in military space China andinto others; a stock market activities the new Space crash; an unexpected jump in oil Force. prices $90established, or $100 a barrel Oncetofully the (it’s now trading around $50); a additional cost will be roughly collapse of consumer $500 million per year, or thebusiness confidence.of 0.07 percent of our equivalent Realistically, Blinder doubts entire defense budget. that any of these will soon derail Under this proposal, the Space the recovery.

“My bet isthe that Force would be within Airthe currentsimilar expansion sail Force, to thewill placement of through June, setting a new the Marine Corps within the record,” he writes.

The biggest Navy.

More than any other threat, he argues, is aForce long has shot organization, the Air — a constitutional crisis been at the vanguard of building involving that space the world’sTrump best military destabilizes economy. programs.

Sothe creating the Space There is, however, one is the Force within the Air Force overlooked danger: The two long best way to minimize duplication expansions the post-World of effort andof eliminate War II era — inefficiencies. the ’60s and the bureaucratic ’90s booms were both Just as the—Air Force began followed tumultuous crises within thebyArmy before becoming subparmilitary performance.

After aand separate department, thetoo ’60s boom, the economy so will this first step in succumbed to establishing therising Spaceinflation, Force pave which at aboutmilitary 13 the waypeaked for a separate percent and in demoralized department the future. The millions of Americans.

Thethe ’90s Space Force is the next and tech boom ultimately led to the natural evolution of U.S. devastatingin2007-2009 financial supremacy space. crisis andthe Great Recession.

Today, threats and It’s almost as there’s opportunities inifspace arean unwrittenmore law requiring thatatthe changing rapidly than big booms be succeeded big any other point since the by Cold busts.And With War. weluck, mustmaybe changehistory along won’tthem. repeat with n itself. n

SUNDAY, March, 10, 2019 16 SUNDAY, MARCH 10, 2019

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5 21 SUNDAY, MARCH 10, 2019

16

SCIENCE

KLMNO WEEKLY

OPINIONS SCIENCE

KLMNO WEEKLY

Nothing nebulous aboutNothing noms de space a nebulous TOM TOLES

BY

S ARAH K APLAN

A

BY

S ARAH K APLAN

A

spiring lunar explorers, spiring lunar explorers, take heed — any newly take heed — any newly discovered ridges on the discovered ridges on the moon must be named for moon must be named for a geoscientist. If you want to name a geoscientist. If you want to name a landform on Saturn’s satellite a landform on Saturn’s satellite Titan, you’d better be a fantasy or Titan, you’d better be a fantasy or science fiction fan: Mountains and science fiction fan: Mountains and plains on the lake-covered moon plains on the lake-covered moon are styled after places in Tolkien’s are styled after places in Tolkien’s Middle Earth and Frank Herbert’s Middle Earth and Frank Herbert’s “Dune” series. And almost every“Dune” series. And almost everything on Io, the eruptive moon of thing on Io, the eruptive moon of Jupiter, must have a name associJupiter, must have a name associated with fire, volcanoes, or ated with fire, volcanoes, or Dante’s “Inferno.”

Dante’s “Inferno.”

So decrees the International AsSo decrees the International Astronomical Union, the official artronomical Union, the official arbiter of planetary and satellite nobiter of planetary and satellite nomenclature since 1919. As ever menclature since 1919. As ever NASA NASA/ASSOCIATED PRESS more powerful telescopes and ammore powerful telescopes and amroom spin.

Maybe wemissions won’t hear bitious new robotic missions add bitious new robotic add these as frequently now, to the identified real estate of the to thesongs identified real estate of the but there will always be fans solar system, the IAU’s brilliant, solar system, the IAU’s brilliant, fluent in the finest details marvelof byzantine and sometimes marvelbyzantine and sometimes Jackson’s music who refuse to ously nerdy naming guidelines ously nerdy naming guidelines hear the big, horrible truth help bring order to our crowded If you make it through all four hours of “Leaving Neverland,” CHRIS help bring order to our crowded about skies. you’ll see the credits rolling next to images of a bonfire RICHARDS skies. who he really was. estate come outfore in an “a.”

If ita is rulesforcame toconsuming the fore aend sequined glove, redretrograde leather jacket and could the cover dome have three (Jackson’s different Left: Iocame orbits is aThe pop IAU’s music critic The IAU’s ruleshas to Jupiter the strongly against (circling the than opposite direc- copies. last month after Inof an album that soldinmore 66 million The in anthe image made by names —flames and a given name might The Washington Post.the Carnegie last month after the Carnegie Indocumentary, suing HBO for in it tion), the name end an “e.” you stitution for Science announced it give a quiet command.

Go must gather upinwhatever havetwo andentirely different Cassini probe describe ob- forthe stitution Science announced $100 million andnaming releasing a Easy peasy, right? needed help naming throw several it in. You certainly have something. He’s jects.

Michael Jackson.

2001.

The planet’s needed help several denies Robson’s “Jupiter one of the more remoons of Jupiter discovered Now last let’s be done withishim. moons must be last It wasn’t until 1913 thatstatement anyoneof that moons Jupiter discovered Safechuck’s allegations.) strictive ones,” Sheppard said. published a definitive listand year. Carnegie astronomer Scott christened for a Scott of every year.

Carnegie astronomer For the of spotted us, everythe new the king of the gods Sheppard, who spotted theAnd new lover or a known feature on the moon — rest if youEven give though “Leaving Sheppard, who Michael Jackson songtelescope sounds was quite the philanderer, there is moons using a giant telescope in your descendant of then the solar system’s most-studNeverland” full attention, moons using a giant in different today.

A lot of old a limit to the number Chile, said suggestions should be to mythological Zeus. be ied object. Work by Mary Adela you’ll want be done with him. of mythologChile, said suggestions should music hastomany new meanings ical characters who meet the IAU tweeted to the handle @JupiterRight: Charon, the Blagg, an English astronomer who Dan Reed’s harrowing tweeted the handle @Jupiterto carry.

His largest hits felt criteria. ‘ends in e’ scenario is Lunacy using the hashtagdocumentary #Nameof always Pluto’s tracked each new discovery andusing film —“The which Lunacy thehave hashtag #Namevast as lifemoons, itself, but now the running JupitersMoons. as captured mismatched name, led toas the creabegan airingactually in two parts on out of names,” JupitersMoons.

Michael Jackson songbook the astronomer said.

But, protocols for planetary noby New tion of the IAU’s first formal list of HBO Sunday night — recounts But, protocols forHorizons planetaryinnoeven wider, more Gareth Williams, an astronomenclature being what they are, sexual 2015.

To name theare, lunar landmarks in 1935. suddenly Two dec- feels the alleged abuse that menclature being what they lifelike in themoon’s saddest way.consider It mer at Harvard Smithsonian Sheppard can only Jackson considerinflicted features, ades later, the organization pubonthe Wade Sheppard can only accounts forathe of for Astrophysics who names that meet a few keyRobson criteria:and Center scientists lished a similar guide tonow Martian James Safechuck as names that meet fewcruelty key criteria: thisItworld.

There’s always been serves on the IAU working groups It must come from a character commemorate the topography. children in such excruciating must come from a character so to hear inmythology this for planetary system and small in Greek or Roman mythology of With the advent of the Space and incriminating detail, there’s in much Greekgood ordestinations Roman music, andeither now there’s evil, too.or bodies nomenclature, said that who was either a descendant or your fictional expeditions.

Age, “people wereHBOmaking no turning head the other whonew was a descendant Now, is very much these stringent guidelinesMichael are nec-Jackson lover of the god known asway.

ZeusIt’s (inunbearable Charon bears a dark discoveries by the bucketload,” to watch. and Wade lover “Thriller” of the god known as Zeus (in about a or man trying to expose the essary avoid confusion in thein “Leaving Greek) or Jupiter (Latin).But It must spot named Mordor, Williams said. It was far more than you should.

Andtothen?

Robson Neverland.”

Greek) Jupiter (Latin).

It must horror inside.

Now, “Smooth study themost cosmos. Before the be 16 characters or fewer, preferafrom the Lord preferaof the one person could keep track of,characters so How do we makeofthe be 16 or fewer, sounds brazenly union came along in the early 20th bly one word. It can’t be offensive, Rings trilogy. aren’t actually to him. a Criminal” thelistening IAU established Working famous entertainer our world bly one word.

It can’t be offensive, criminal.

It in the century, the solar was whether a too commercial, or closely tied toknown or not want System Group for you Planetary No- Now, “Keep has ever instantly and system And too commercial, or closely tied to feels sinister mess. any political, military or permanently religious to listen to another Michael menclature (WGPSN) toCloset” oversee disappear? We any political, militaryand or religious perverse. the and internationactivities of the past 100don’t. years.We It can’t.Political Jackson songthe innaming your life, it’s not process.

Even if fights we toss activities Now, of the“Man past in 100 years. It Mirror” is a guilty plea.person and al disputes occasionally broke can’t belong to a living person reallyout up to you.

Therethe will still When first images everyand last copy of “Thriller” into can’t are belong to a living Butto aasong’s meaning the names of new be planets. can’t be too similar to thethat name of we over house parties, andback wedding beamed from a mission fire, still have to breathe can’t be too similar to thedoesn’t name of reside exclusively inor itsasteroids. lyrics, If And few music researchers the time and any existing moons or asteroids.

If Jackson’s newkaraoke celestial body, the spacecraft the fumes. has tookreceptions, any existing moons which means Jackson’sisvoice cross-check whether their sup- andteam the moon in question is prograde contests, barbecues, behindand the encounter dictated the to contours of 21stthe typimoon in question prograde radiates new asdirection well. Theas had Friday actually (it circles in the same direction nightscally on dance floors categories proposes anda in centuryaspop posed music, “discovery” so we’re (it circles theaura same softness the levity in his must before. crater or its planet rotates) the name musthimbeen “Billiethemes Jean” makes the the landforms for naming hearing evenseen when we A givenwhere its planetand rotates) the name

The bizarre brilliant rules for naming new Why our listening hasand to change

discoveries have their own celestial reasonings

they observe, said Rita Schulz, the chairwoman of the WGPSN. After NASA’s New Horizons probe flew past Pluto in 2015, for example, scientists on the team and at the IAU devised a naming scheme focused on stories of the underworld and voyages of discovery. They agreed that mountains on the planet would be named for historic explorers while dark spots and plains on its moon Charon could commemorate the destinations of fictional space expeditions. As a result, we have the Tenzing Montes on Pluto — 20,000-foot-tall ice mountains named for Nepalese mountaineer Tenzing Norgay — and a macula, or dark spot, on Charon called “Mordor.” (Space is full of Lord of the Rings references.)

Once themes are decided, anyfalsetto to make hisfor songs one can used suggest a name a new feel toso gravity. bodyresistant or feature long asNow, he oritshe sounds like he was using a can demonstrate it is scientifically child’s some kind of useful. voice New as suggestions are reinsidious Thetask precision viewed bydisguise. the relevant group and control in his phrasing used the members of the overall to feel likegroup a generous working and, once apcraftsman’s gift If to it humanity. proved, published the Gazend in are an “a.” isinretrograde Now, itofshould remind us about etteer Planetary Nomenclature. (circling in the opposite directhe control Jackson exerted over Having themes “minimizes the tion), the name must end in an “e.” the powerless children hewant to chance that someone will Easy peasy, right? surrounded with. give“Jupiter the same name two differishimself one ofto the more reAs for Jackson’s greatest ent features on two different bodstrictive ones,” Sheppard said. songs, they’vethe always little ies because themes will be Even though the kingbeen of the gods Möbius loops — those songs different on Williams said.is was quite theeach,” philanderer, there about thattogether. make you “It alsodancing ties things If you a limit to the number of mythologwant to dance.

And theIAU know your mythology . . is . you can ical characters who this meet the music that wetell will struggle to on immediately what it’s criteria.

“The ‘ends in e’body scenario is contend over and and whatwith typein [ofpublic, feature] itnames,” is.” actually running out of over again.

It’s dizzying thinkin Minor planets — anytobody the astronomer said. about it. These songs have orbit around the sun that is not a Gareth Williams, an astronoconsecrated so much American planet — are the most mer ator thecomet Harvard Smithsonian life.

“Don’t ’Til You Get who freewheeling of solar system obCenter forStop Astrophysics Enough” “Rock With You” jects. a few most servesWith onand the IAUexceptions, working groups and the Wall” — theand critic new asteroids can bear any name for “Off planetary system small Margo once described that is Jefferson not offensive orsaid overtly bodies nomenclature, that the appeal oforthese dance floor commercial political.

But innecthe these stringent guidelines are hymns blunt-force clarity: 1980s, when astronomer James essary with to avoid confusion in the “It’s trance music.”

Gibson christened a newly discovstudy of the cosmos.

Before the We’re vulnerable in a early trance. ered asteroid with in the name of20th his union came along the As an artist, knew all cat, Mr. Spock, “certain people century, theJackson solar system was—a about howgoing that worked.

His any I’m not to mention mess. ability to cultivate vulnerability names — felt that and was inappropriPolitical fights internationchanged theoccasionally way we listen.

Now, ate,” Williams said.

“So now that is al disputes broke out the has never been strongly overevidence thediscouraged.” names of new planets. more damning preyed on Butfew the IAU that doeshe not change And researchers took the time the vulnerable behind closed names once they are chosen. to cross-check whether their The supdoors. listening has toactually asteroid 2309 Mr. Spock the posed Our “discovery” hadcircles change again. sun still. n before. n A given crater or been seen

N

The bizarre and brillian discoveries have their o

dome names descri jects.

It w publis known then t ied ob Blagg, tracke misma tion o lunar ades l lished topog Wit Age, “ discov Willia one pe the IA Group mencl the na Wh beame new c team cally theme

66

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KLMNO WEEKLY

POLITICS

Probes of Trump dealings multiply

BY D AVID A . F AHRENTHOLD, R ACHAEL B ADE AND J OHN W AGNER

M

ultiplying investigations by state authorities, federal investigators and congressional Democrats began to dig into President Trump’s business, charity and presidency simultaneously this week.

The White House rebuffed one such inquiry, telling House Democrats it would not provide documents about its process for granting security clearances. But that did not end the confrontation. It probably just delayed it: Democrats were discussing whether to demand that information under subpoena.

And, for Trump, other troubles were just behind that one.

Another committee of House Democrats said it was preparing to ask for about 10 years of Trump’s tax returns. Trump has declined to release his tax returns, unlike other presidents in the recent past.

And still another committee — House Intelligence — announced that it had hired a former federal prosecutor to lead its investigation of Trump’s alleged ties to Russia. Daniel Goldman, a former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, has a history of prosecuting securities fraud, racketeering and international organized crime.

But there was more. Reports surfaced Tuesday that New York state regulators have subpoenaed Trump’s insurance broker, Aon PLC, following testimony from former Trump attorney Michael Cohen that Trump exaggerated his wealth to insurance companies.

As the inquiries multiplied, Trump’s tweets got short.

“PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!” the president wrote on Twitter, seemingly viewing all these inquiries as an effort by his enemies to overwhelm him.

Trump told reporters that Democrats had hurt their chances of working with him on

JABIN BOTSFORD/THE WASHINGTON POST

Investigators dig into his campaign, White House and businesses policy issues.

“It’s too bad, because I’d rather see them do legislation,” Trump said. “Instead of doing infrastructure, instead of doing health care, instead of doing so many things that they should be doing, they want to play games.”

The Trump Organization declined to comment on the investigations. Trump still owns his business, although he has handed day-to-day control of it to his sons Donald Jr. and Eric, and to longtime executive Allen Weisselberg.

The past week accelerated the probes into Trump’s past and present, particularly following testimony last week by Cohen, once Trump’s self-described

Above: President Trump speaks during a meeting in the Oval Office. Left: Michael Cohen, longtime lawyer for Trump, arrives at the Capitol to testify before the House Intelligence Committee.

JAHI CHIKWENDIU/THE WASHINGTON POST

“fixer.” Cohen spent seven hours telling a House committee about the inner workings of Trump’s company.

At one point, Cohen said that Trump used exaggerated statements of his own wealth to impress journalists, reassure lenders and persuade insurance companies to lower his premiums.

“When we were dealing . . . with insurance companies, we would provide them with these copies so that they would understand that the premium, which is based sometimes upon the individual’s capabilities to pay, would be reduced,” Cohen testified.

“And all of this was done at the president’s direction and with his knowledge?” asked Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-Mo.).

“Yes,” Cohen said.

That testimony preceded the

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SUNDAY, March, 10, 2019 SUNDAY, MARCH 10, 2019

POLITICS subpoena from New York’s Department of Financial Services, which regulates insurance in the state. The Trump Organization is headquartered in Manhattan.

Separately, congressional Democrats spent the early days of the week laying out detailed demands for documents from Trump, his family, his underlings and his business partners.

On Monday, the House Judiciary Committee sent letters to 81 people and entities asking for documents the committee wants to examine in a host of Trump-related inquiries.

Judiciary’s document request seeks information from Trump’s two adult sons, business associates, political confidants and others. It touches on a wide array of matters, including the president’s business dealings with Russia, the firing of James B. Comey as FBI director and hush payments made to women who say they had affairs with Trump.

Democrats, led by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard E. Neal (Mass.), plan to seek Trump’s tax returns under a 1924 law that gives chairmen of the House and Senate tax-writing committees broad powers to demand the tax returns of White House officials, according to people briefed on those plans.

People involved in that effort said they are being deliberate so as not to make a mistake that jeopardizes the investigation.

“If we had done this a month and a half ago, we would not be prepared, we would be falling on our face, and we’d be looking at the rationale for what we’re doing,” said Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-N.J.).

Trump has made clear to associates that he will resist this demand, according to three people who have been briefed on the discussions but spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.

If Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin refuse, that would be likely to set off a court battle that would drag the process out for months or more than a year and into the 2020 election season. n

KLMNO WEEKLY

House Democrats navigate Omar’s remarks on Israel

BY P AUL K ANE, M IKE D E B ONIS AND F ELICIA S ONMEZ

H

ouse Democrats this week found themselves in one of the trickiest battles on Capitol Hill, trying to prove that they are united in the fight against President Trump and on core issues they campaigned on.

They had a remarkably effective first two months in the majority, defying Trump on his demand for a border wall and clearly winning the leftover budget battle from 2018. They passed a significant bill that would require expanded background checks on gun purchases and were expected to pass a sweeping election and ethics reform bill on Friday.

But those early wins were being threatened by a dispute between House leadership and some outspoken first-term Democrats on issues related to Israel, an ideological and generational fault line that could end up sowing more division among House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s ranks for the bigger fights ahead.

The focus this past week was again on Rep. Ilhan Omar (DMinn.), one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, and remarks about “loyalty” to Israel. After leadership signaled a willingness to advance a softly worded resolution related to antiSemitism, Omar’s allies rallied to her defense and accused Pelosi’s leadership team of inappropriately singling out the Somali refugee.

Led by Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), fellow freshman Democrats, Omar’s defenders sidelined that original resolution and leaders were left cobbling together a broader draft that would oppose many forms of offensive actions.

It may seem trivial — a nonbinding resolution expressing opposition to intolerance of all kinds — but it was a critical test for leadership to bring the caucus

J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, has been criticized for seemingly anti-Semitic comments.

back together.

On Thursday, the House passed the measure, condemning antiSemitism and anti-Muslim bias in equal measure.

The resolution indirectly repudiates Omar’s comments, saying that “accusations of dual loyalty generally have an insidious and pernicious history” and noting that such an accusation “constitutes anti-Semitism because it suggests that Jewish citizens cannot be patriotic Americans and trusted neighbors.”

But it includes language condemning anti-Muslim bigotry “as hateful expressions of intolerance that are contrary to the values and aspirations of the United States,” and condemns incidents of mosque bombings and planned domestic terrorist attacks targeting Muslim communities.

The vote reflected concerns that the issue was overshadowing the agenda, but even the reworked resolution had problems.

The vote was briefly delayed as leaders made more changes to the resolution, broadening it again to acknowledge prejudice against even more minority groups.

One day before the vote, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) tried to explain that divisions among Democrats only undermined the broader effort.

“Our diversity is our strength, our unity is our power. And whenever we have been unified, we’ve been successful,” Jeffries said.

“We’re all clear that as long as we continue to remain unified around the core issues that we promised the American people we would address, then we’re going to be successful.”

Israel has become a divisive issue inside a Democratic caucus that, in years past, tended to agree with Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.), a prominent supporter of Israel, and now has a younger flank that views Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government as oppressive and aligned with Republicans. That sentiment grew in 2015 when House Republicans, still in the majority, unilaterally invited Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress.

But on several occasions Omar has engaged in tropes that go beyond questioning Netanyahu’s actions and were deemed anti-Semitic.

That’s put Pelosi in a bind, trying to find a way to admonish and instill discipline in Omar while also avoiding alienating the younger Democrats.

“It’s not about her,” Pelosi said after Thursday’s vote, referring to Omar. “It’s about these forms of hatred.” n

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KLMNO WEEKLY

WORLD

2nd case of long-term HIV remission B Y C AROLYN Y . J OHNSON

A

London man has been in remission from HIV for a year and a half, without drugs, after receiving a stem cell transplant of virus-resistant cells — raising the prospect that he has become the second person to be cured of the disease.

The anonymous case, referred to as the “London patient” by researchers, was cautiously reported in the journal Nature as still too “premature” to be declared a cure, but is a long-awaited advance. It was announced Tuesday at an HIV conference in Seattle, 12 years after Timothy Ray Brown, known in medical circles as the “Berlin patient” was cured by a similar stem cell transplant, galvanizing the field of HIV research and sparking the search for a cure.

“I think this is really quite significant. It shows the Berlin patient was not just a one-off, that this is a rational approach in limited circumstances,” said Daniel Kuritzkes, chief of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, who was not involved in the study. “Nobody doubted the truth of the report with the Berlin patient, but it was one patient.

And which of the many things that were done to him contributed to the apparent cure? It wasn’t clear this could be reproduced.”

Modern drug treatments for HIV have transformed an infection that was once a frightening death sentence into a disease that can be managed long-term, if people adhere to a lifelong medication regimen. Of the 37 million people infected worldwide, 21 million have access to therapy that can keep the disease in check.

The quest for a true cure has continued, driven by the need in lower-income countries, where access to drug therapy is often less certain and strains of drug-resistant virus are a bigger problem.

The advance was hailed by infectious disease specialists and even President Trump as a major advance, who called it “such great news for so many” on Twitter. But physicians cautioned that while

MANUEL VALDES/ASSOCIATED PRESS

A decade after the first person was cured of HIV, London patient’s case is hailed as major advance the new case should inject new energy and funding into efforts to develop treatments that use lessons from the two cases to put the disease in long-term remission, such stem cell transplants — which are not readily available and carry severe side effects in comparison to standard HIV treatments — would not become the standard of care for people infected with the virus.

The London patient, infected with HIV and suffering from Hodgkin’s lymphoma, received bone marrow cells from a donor who had a malfunctioning CCR5 gene as part of his cancer treatment in 2016. The gene is known to create a protein that is crucial for HIV to invade white blood cells. In September 2017, he stopped taking the drugs that had kept his virus in check for the past five years.

“While it is too early to say with certainty that our patient is now cured of HIV, and doctors will

continue to monitor his condition, the apparent success . . . offers hope in the search for a long-awaited cure for HIV/AIDS,” Eduardo Olavarria, a hematologist at Imperial College London said in a statement. The study was led by Ravindra Gupta at University College London.

The success helps doctors understand why other patients failed to see similar results.

Brown had also received a transplant without functioning CCR5 genes. But a set of “Boston patients,” who received stem cell transplants with functioning CCR5 genes also experienced marked reductions in the reservoir of HIV in their cells and were able to go without treatment for months, showing that the transplant itself played a role in knocking back the virus. Their temporary results also suggested that the aberrant gene was necessary for a sustained cure.

Despite efforts to repeat the

Timothy Ray Brown, known in medical circles as the “Berlin patient,” was the first person to be considered cured of HIV more than a decade ago. He was cured by a similar stem cell transplant.

remarkable Berlin results, researchers had failed for a decade — in part because the possibility of doing such transplants is rare and because of the success of HIV medications in controlling the disease. Stem cell transplants are risky and are only attempted when there is a clinical reason to do them, such as cancer. Donors must be a genetic match to recipients, and there are very few people who naturally carry two copies of the disabled CCR5 gene, which limits the number of potential transplants. Several patients who have received such transplants since Brown’s successful treatment have died of the underlying cancer, several HIV researchers noted.

The new patient means that Brown, who decided in 2010 to reveal his identity and tell his story, is no longer alone.

“While in recovery there was much talk about my case among medical scientists. I was not ready for publicity but, at the end of 2010, I decided that I would release my name and image to the media,” Brown wrote in an essay in AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses. “I did not want to be the only person in the world cured of HIV; I wanted other HIV-positive patients to join my club.”

Although stem cell transplants aren’t a feasible therapy for most people with HIV, that doesn’t diminish excitement about the new case from the research community, which has become interested in using gene therapy to disable the CCR5 gene by using other technologies, including the geneediting technology CRISPR. “I think that one thing we’ve learned is finding a scalable, economically feasible cure, or HIV remission, is going to be difficult,” said Timothy Henrich, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California at San Francisco not involved in the study.

“It’s not going to be easy, and it’s not going to be quick. But I think that every year we get a little bit closer to the ultimate goal, and cases like this I hope will continue to excite and inform the community.” n

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KLMNO WEEKLY

FIVE MYTHS

Socialism BY

S HERI B ERMAN

Socialism in the United States is prominent in a way it hasn’t been in decades. High­profile left­leaning politicians like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I­Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio­Cortez (D­N.Y.) hold up socialist policies as solutions to the ills facing the nation, from the growing political influence of the “top 1 percent” to the lack of universal health care. Meanwhile, critics, including President Trump, say socialism leads inexorably to tyranny and poverty. But the important debate is clouded by many misconceptions.

MYTH NO. 1 Socialism is a single coherent ideology.

Socialist groups may have different names (“democratic socialists” and so on), but the distinctions between them are an illusion, columnist Jenna Ellis wrote in the Washington Examiner last year.

Yet socialism has multiple meanings and interpretations.

One distinction centers on whether socialism is a system that must supplant capitalism or one that can harness the market’s immense productive capacity for progressive ends.

Although Sanders and OcasioCortez embrace the term “democratic socialist,” the policies they advocate place them much closer to yet another socialist tradition: social democracy.

Social democrats say it is possible and desirable to reform capitalism.

MYTH NO. 2 Socialism and democracy are incompatible.

Communists reject democracy, but other socialists have strongly supported it. In many parts of the world they were the most consistent advocates of democratization. Conservatives, on the other hand, thought of democracy as “despotism of the multitude,” in Edmund Burke’s phrase, and liberals like Alexis de Tocqueville and John Stuart Mill were resistant to expanding the franchise as well, because giving

workers too much power would threaten the economic elites necessary for social stability. Only organizing and pressure from parties of the left broke liberal and conservative resistance to democracy in Europe.

MYTH NO. 3 Socialists want to abolish markets and private property.

Communists, when in power, have done away with markets and private property. Democratic socialists say that in principle they hope capitalism will disappear over the long run, but in the meantime, they advocate piecemeal changes in the ownership and control of economic resources — bank nationalization, for instance.

(Democratic socialists have never fully held power anywhere, so their programs remain largely theoretical.) And social democrats have focused on redistributing the fruits of markets and private enterprise rather than abolishing them.

Most of the policies advocated by Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) are achievable in a capitalist system.

MYTH NO. 4 When socialism is tried, it collapses.

Communism certainly failed, but social democracy has arguably been the single most successful modern ideology or political movement. Stable European democracies arose

JIM WATSON/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

after World War II because a social consensus married relatively free markets and private ownership of the means of production with expanded welfare states, progressive taxation and other forms of government intervention in the economy and society. Without the welfare state, the benefits of growth would not have been distributed so widely: Inequality declined dramatically during the postwar decades.

Moreover, the parts of the world considered to be the most “social democratic,” like the Scandinavian countries, are successful by almost any measure: Growth is strong, unemployment is low, their economies are consistently ranked as highly competitive, and the quality of life is high.

MYTH NO. 5 Socialism offers a ready-made solution to the big problems.

Many of today’s democratic socialists lack clear plans for what they want to put in capitalism’s place and how this new economic order would generate the growth,

efficiency and innovation necessary to achieve redistribution and raise living standards.

Republicans insist that these initiatives would destroy growth.

True, conservatives made similar claims in the past about major government initiatives like Social Security and Medicare. But it is surely legitimate to press advocates of increased government spending on how they would pay for these programs.

What distinguished the postwar era was the combination of rising growth and equality. If socialists want to convince Americans, Europeans and others that they have the best solutions to contemporary problems, they need to show that their policies can generate substantial wealth and resources as well as, simultaneously, a more equitable distribution of them. n Berman, a professor of political science at Barnard College, is the author of “Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe: From the Ancien Régime to the Present Day.”

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COVER STORY

PHOTOS BY SARAH BLESENER FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Alexandria Villasenor, 13, has been protesting at the United Nations for weeks. Her strike against climate change has exploded into a movement.

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SUNDAY, March, 10, 2019

This teen is one of a cadre of young, fierce and mostly female activists behind a global climate movement

BY SARAH KAPLAN IN NEW YORK

On the ninth Friday of her strike, 13-year-old Alexandria Villasenor woke to a dozen emails, scores of Twitter notifications and news from the other side of the planet: Students in China wanted to join her movement. ¶ Every week since December, the seventh-grader has made a pilgrimage to the United Nations’ headquarters demanding action on climate change. She is one of a cadre of young, fierce and mostly female activists behind the School Strike 4 Climate movement. On March 15, with the support of some of the world’s biggest environmental groups, tens of thousands of kids in at least two dozen countries and nearly 30 U.S. states plan to skip school to protest.

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Their demands are uncompromising: Nations must commit to cutting fossil-fuel emissions in half in the next 10 years to avoid catastrophic global warming. And their message is firm: Kids are done waiting for adults to save their world.

“Mom, this is so cool,” Alexandria says, as she reads the latest list of countries where kids have pledged to participate in a global strike: Australia, Thailand, Ghana, France.

Alexandria pulls out the planner she purchased to keep track of all her commitments.

Each task is color-coded by geographic scale: Pink for global organizing. Orange for national.

Yellow for New York.

First on the agenda is an interview with a reporter from Britain, who seems caught off guard by the young woman’s fervor.

“My generation is really upset.” The deal struck at COP24, the U.N. climate meeting in December, was insufficient, she says. “We’re not going to let them . . . hand us down a broken planet.”

“Huh. Right,” the reporter says. “Big ambitions.”

Alexandria raises her eyebrows. “Yeah,” she replies, confident.

Afterward, she changes into her strike uniform: waterproof ski pants and a down jacket, all in white, just like the congresswomen at the State of the Union and the suffragists of old. She packs her bag — planner, thermos, gloves — and grabs her plastic-encased cardboard signs, which read “SCHOOL STRIKE 4 CLIMATE” and “COP 24 FAILED US.” She holds the signs facing inward so other commuters on the subway can’t see them. She doesn’t like it when people stare.

“They’ll probably think it’s just a science project,” Alexandria tells her mother, Kristin Hogue. Then she laughs. “Well, technically it is.

It’s project conservation. Project save the Earth.”

‘Make my voice heard’ Last year, during a visit with family in Northern California, Alexandria was caught in the cloud of smoke from the Camp Fire, which killed nearly 100 people and filled the air with unbreathable smoke. The girl suffers from asthma, and for days afterward she felt physically ill and emotionally distraught.

This isn’t normal, she thought. This isn’t right.

She began to look up articles about the West’s historic drought, read reports about recent global temperature rise, asked her mother, a graduate student in the Climate and Society program at Columbia University, to explain the drivers behind global warming. She joined the New York chapter of Zero Hour, a network of young American climate activists.

In December she watched as international negotiators met in Poland to carve out a plan for curbing carbon emissions. A recent U.N. report found that humanity has until 2030 — the year Alexandria turns 24 — to achieve “rapid and far-reaching” transformation of society if we wish to avoid the dire environmental consequences of warming 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. Yet the agreement that was ultimately reached fell far short of what scientists say is urgently needed.

Amid all this, Greta Thunberg, a 15-year-old from Sweden, took the podium.

“You say you love your children above all else, and yet you are stealing their future in front of their very eyes,” the girl proclaimed to a room full of stunned adults. “We have come here to let you know that change is coming, whether you like it or not.”

Recalling that speech, Alexandria’s eyes light up. “She just put them in their place,” Alexandria says. “That was extremely satisfying.”

Alexandria searched Greta’s name online and found stories about the Swedish girl’s climate strike in front of her country’s parlia-

Left: Alexandria Villasenor, 13, commutes on the subway from her apartment on the Upper West Side to the United Nations, holding her protest signs.

Right: Alexandria gives a presentation to Earth Strike NYC at Allegro Coffee in the Bowery.

ment building, then in its fourth month. “I am too young to vote and to lobby,” she told The Washington Post recently. “But I can sit down with a sign and make my voice heard.”

Alexandria knew what she needed to do.

She made her first pilgrimage to the United Nations’ headquarters on Dec. 14. The next week she was back — with an umbrella. She has endured relentless rain and brutal wind off the East River (weeks three and four). She has braved the polar vortex that sent temperatures plummeting to 10 degrees (week eight).

“But I stay motivated,” she says. “Of course.

It’s my future on the line.”

Alexandria has joined forces with Haven Coleman, a 12-year-old striker from Colorado, and Isra Hirsi, the 15-year-old daughter of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), to organize the U.S. movement.

Offers of support began streaming in almost faster than the girls could respond. The executive director of Greenpeace agreed to hand the group’s social media accounts over to students for the day of the strike. The New York chapter of the Sunrise Movement, the grass-roots group advocating for the Green New Deal, offered to handle outreach for March 15. Prominent climate researchers including Michael Mann, Kathrine Hayhoe and Peter Kalmus followed the girls on Twitter and began to organize an open letter of support from scientists. Alexandria and her mother have been invited to attend a special briefing next week on the U.N. Climate Summit being held later this year.

Even the 13-year-old is stunned by the momentum of the movement, which seems to have taken on a life of its own. Sometimes all she can do is watch the emails roll in and think, “Whoa.

I did that.”

‘This is about my generation’ “That one down there is mine,” Alexandria says. She points to a bench about 100 feet from

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COVER STORY

the U.N. visitor entrance, as close as she’s allowed to get to the protected building.

It’s raining — a persistent chilly drizzle — and the wind keeps blowing her posters down.

But Alexandria is feeling good about the day.

For the first time since she started her protest, she will have company later that day.

Hogue takes a photo to post to Twitter.

Alexandria poses with her arms crossed and her hip tilted to the side, unsmiling. She is not here to look cute. Then Hogue hugs her daughter and walks away. Since she began the strike several weeks ago, Alexandria has been adamant about protesting on her own.

“This is about my generation,” the girl says.

After a few hours, the rain subsides and Alexandria’s first fellow protester appears. Stefanie Giglio, 31, is a freelance writer and activist who was trained as one of Al Gore’s “Climate Reality” advocates.

Alexandria reaches out to shake the woman’s hand. “Thanks for coming,” she says.

“It’s great that your parents are okay with this,” Giglio says.

The 13-year-old nods. She has friends elsewhere in the city whose parents won’t let them skip school to protest.

“They’re so dependent on school,” Alexandria says. “Like, I need to go to school to get the education for the job that’s definitely going to be there in 10 years. If I don’t have a future, why go to school? Why go to school if we’re going to be too focused on running from disasters?

Striking has to be the way.”

Two blocks away, in the coffee shop where she usually waits out the protest, Hogue monitors Alexandria’s Twitter feed and tries not to feel guilty for leaving her daughter out there alone. The comments online don’t help. For all the strangers on the Internet who call Alexandria an inspiration, there are still people who tweet “YOU’RE A MORON” and “Go back to school!” and threaten to “come down there and

Left: Alexandria sits in a Zero Hour meeting at Columbia University with a group of high school activists from New York and New Jersey.

Right: Alexandria rests her head on the shoulder of her mother, Kristin Hogue, on the subway after leading a Zero Hour meeting.

teach you a real lesson about climate change.”

Hogue blocks the worst offenders before the seventh-grader can see their messages. But there’s not much else she can do. When she went to the New York Police Department’s 17th precinct to file a report, officials told her they could only respond to concrete threats.

And every week, Alexandria insists on returning to her post.

“I have to let her make her own choices,” Hogue says. “This is what she wants.”

She recalls their first honest conversation about climate change, when Alexandria was 9 or 10, and Hogue was reading Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” for a college literature class.

The girl asked what the book was about. So Hogue told her of Carson’s crusade against pesticides that killed birds and poisoned streams, how one woman speaking out led to the rise of environmentalism and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency. That led to conversations about pollution and sea-level rise, about Alexandria’s asthma and California drought — all the ways humans are still suffering today from the changes we’ve made to our planet.

“She just couldn’t understand how people could knowingly do that to the planet,” Hogue said. “I think, sitting out there right now, she still doesn’t understand.”

But maybe, Hogue thinks, that’s exactly what makes Alexandria and her friends so formidable.

Feeling ‘like I have power’ The next day, a Saturday, Alexandria’s chapter of Zero Hour huddles in a meeting room on the Columbia University campus to discuss plans for the global strike.

“Here’s today’s schedule,” she says. “First Peter de Menocal is going to be giving a presentation on the latest climate science. Peter —” she looks toward the lone adult in the room,

KLMNO WEEKLY

“are you ready?”

De Menocal displays a graph of future emissions scenarios. A blue curve depicts the path recommended by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which would limit warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius. “Business as usual” is shown in red — a line that just keeps going up.

“This is all that stuff you guys are fighting for,” de Menocal says. “If you don’t fight for it, we own those red pathways.”

Alexandria knows this story. It’s the one that climate researchers have been telling for nearly 40 years, to little effect. When Alexandria tries to envision her own adulthood, she sees only “what ifs.” But all those hours of organizing, all those days sitting in front of the U.N., “it helps,” she says. “It makes me feel like I have power.”

His presentation done, de Menocal hands the clicker over and Alexandria straightens in her chair. “Okay,” she says. “Here’s the update.”

The professor leans forward as the 13-yearold launches into a description of the global strike — all the support it has, all the attention it has received. In 30 years of studying climate, in all his uncountable hours of attempting to convey the scope of the crisis, he has rarely felt so humbled, he says — or so filled with hope.

“Do you have a statement I can read somewhere?” he asks.

“Sure,” Alexandria says. “We have a mission statement and a media advisory on our website.”

De Menocal mouths “wow” and turns around to give the girl’s mother an amazed grin.

Afterward, he pulls Alexandria aside.

“Thank you for what you’re doing,” he says.

“Thank you so much. What can I do to help?”

She tells him about the scientists who are writing a letter of support and suggests that he get involved.

“He can organize the adults,” she says later.

“We’re ready for them now.” n

14 SUNDAY, MARCH 10, 2019 22

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OPINIONS ECONOMY

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still upending the workforce dingBoomers the workforce Companies knew the retirement wave was coming, but replacing lost skill sets is a continuing challenge

BY ANDREW Vpiecemeal AN DAM than to sever allWhen at once.do

piecemeal than to sever all at once. you expect to retire?

“You kind of wonder what retire“You kind of wonder what retirement is anymore,” Glickstein said. he youngest boomers 66 and ment isbaby anymore,” Glickstein said.

66 and 40% above above There’s no longer “a magic moment are around years old.

There’s 55 no longer “a magic moment when you stop working entirely,” he The oldest their 70s. entirely,” he whenare youinstop working added.

Most added.

Americans don’t reThe share of companies offering member a workforce without the The share of companies offering 30 older workers partial-year employlargest generation.

And yet, as older workers partial-year employment and shorter hours is expected boomers enter their final yearshours in is expected ment and shorter to rise sharply. About 2 in 5 compathe 65 workforce, theirsharply. retirements to rise About 2 in 5 compa65 nies surveyed are considering offerare taking companies by surprise. nies surveyed are considering offer20 ing part-time work or flexible hours In the nextingfive years, work almost part-time or flexible hours by 2020, nearly double the current three-quarters the nearly companies byof 2020, double the current 60-64 60-64 in 2018 rate. Others hope to keep older surveyed Willis Towers rate.byOthers hope to keep older 59 and workers around with reduced reWatson, 59 anda risk-management workers around and with reduced re10 below below brokerage sponsibilities, and a growing miinsurance company, sponsibilities, andexa growing minority are offering options that pect to face significant moder- options that nority areoroffering

BY LUCKOVICH FOR THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION blend volunteer work with tradiate challenges from late retireblend volunteer work with tradi- BY SCHORR tional employment. ments. But because is pretional nothing employment.

0 dictable, a significant share are 2000 ’05 ’10 ’15 Reason 3: It’s hard to ’05 ’10 ’15 Reason 3: It’s hard to 1995 also worried about early ones. generalize across industries. across industries.

The surveygeneralize included 143 human Note: Annual averages resources companies Four out of 5 manufacturers, and Fourat out of 5 manufacturers, and Source: Gallup THE WASHINGTON POST THE WASHINGTON POST managers that, together, employ about 2.9in the mining 2 outto of 2001).

3 employers in theBlinder mining 1991 Princeton’s post-World War II average of 2 out of 3 employers million people.

It was analyzed in included in and nonprofit sectors included in cites these threats to the about 3 percent. He plowed and nonprofit sectors Industries with more retirement-age employees retirement-age employees a working paper in Febthe survey were concerned expansion: a trade war withabout ahead with a sizable tax cut of thecirculated survey were concerned about ruary by the loss National Bureau loss of talent.

Retail and service-secChina and others; a stock market $1.5 trillion over a decade. I (and of talent.

Retailof and service-secEconomic Research.

Managers tor employers were not asincon2001-2004 crash; an unexpected jump oil many others) opposed this as tor employers were not60% as con2001-2004 were askedintocerned. compare the busicerned.toThat to atrack someprices $90tends or $100 barrel risking higher inflation 2015-2018 and tends to track some- economist Alan S. Writing the WallThat Street Journal, Princeton ROBERT J. 2015-2018 ness challenges ofwith employee re- Economic whatnow withtrading each sectors’ reliance (it’s around $50); aon needlessly expanding already what each sectors’ reliance onBoom.” This may be the Blinder calls it “The Obama-Trump SAMUELSON 40 tirements over thewhat past five years older workers, but individual incollapse of consumer or business large federal deficits. But it gave older workers, but individual in-longest economic best bad label for may soon become the is a columnist for The to the next five years.

In each dustries within each sector vary confidence. the economy an extra shove that within each sector varyin assigning credit for expansion in dustries U.S. history.

I am a great skeptic Washington Post. category, companies a greater considerably.

Funeral homes, reliRealistically, Blinder doubts bolstered confidence and considerably.

Funeral homes, reli- But Blinder’s turn of good economic timessaw to particular presidents.

20 challenge the years to The bus giousany organizations, that of these will bus soondrivers, derail growth. Sure enough, the gious organizations, drivers, phrase hasinthe virtue ofcome. spreading the glory between two candidates. respondents were not part ofestate a florists and real the recovery.

“Myestate bet is agents that theall economy grew about 3 percent and real agents all to influence the It is not, offlorists course, that presidents don’t wish random sample, their experihave more than a will third current expansion sailof their in 2018. haveand more than thirdthey economy.

Whether they help ora hurt, are sure to claim paternity 0of their 15- 25- 35- 55- 65ences cannot be considered repreworkers over 55, according through June,age setting a new to To all Public thesefinance, factors must be workers overPresident age 55, according for good economic news.

Trump isto no exception.

24 34 44 64 plus Admin. of Fuel Retail of Fuel Public finance, Retail sentative.

Butour they suggest broad our analysis of the Census Bureau’s record,” he writes.

The biggest added surprising analysis of the Census Bureau’s Real estate econ. programs dealers taxation, etc.developments florists rams dealers taxation, etc. florists concern in the business American threat, he Community argues, is a Survey. long shot that don’t fit in any purely American Community More to the point, President He congratulates himself forworld the Survey.

60% about stock dealing (ormany not many industries, — aInconstitutional crisisemployers partisan framework. Chief In industries, employers Barack Obama delivered to strong market (up dealing) withtrillion an aging workforce.

This datauncertainty also face significant uncertainty as involving Trump that among these has been low also faceelection significant as economy that had Trump an $7.7 since his was noton available to whom or what will replace a retirdestabilizes the economy. inflation, which has remained to whom orreports what will replace a retirovercome the worst victory Nov. 8,otherwise.

2016, 40 ingThere boomer, Glickstein is, however, onesaid. Rearound 2 percent annually — ing boomer, Glickstein psychological said. Reeffects of the Wilshire Associates) and solid Reason 1: Boomer retirement spondents reported thattwo “loss of overlooked danger: The long identical with the Fed’s target. spondents reported thatfinancial “loss ofcrisis and the job creation (about 200,000 dates are a moving target. specific company knowledge” expansions of the post-World Why inflation has been so specific company knowledge” 20 accompanying Great Recession. payroll jobs per month over his would increasingly Record-breaking of War II be eraan — the ’60s and difficult the subdued is a mystery. would beshares an increasingly difficult This was not inevitable. In the first two years). challenge.

Americans to work An ’90s booms — were both Economic textbooks warn challenge. dark days of late 2008 and early Just howplan much praiselonger.

Trump 0 As technology progresses, April 2018 poll showed followed by tumultuous crises it’s that, as an economy approaches technology it’s talk of another Great 2009, the deserves for Gallup thisAsperformance isprogresses, Postal Service Sewing and Bus service and Religious Funeral service nd Bus service and Religious Funeral service expect to be working feasible thatperformance. a robot or computer 41 percent and subpar After “full employment,” wages and feasible that a robot or computer Depression was not entirely unclear.

When reviewing the related stores urban transit organizations and crematories ores urban transit organizations and crematories program could the takeeconomy on some of a beyond above, age 65 — should a huge the ’60s boom, prices will accelerate. program could jump take on some of aThe responses of the fanciful. figures you worker’s responsibilities when he since POST Gallup started succumbed to rising inflation, Companies will increase wages worker’s responsibilities whenLabor he Federal Reserve under Chairman remember that in the tracking last two in Source: Department via IPUMS THE WASHINGTON POST THE WASHINGTON or she peaked is readyattoabout retire.

1995, of when itoraveraged 13.5 to perwhich 13And beto attract and keep workers; she presidency, is ready retire.Ben And S. beBernanke and the years the Obama cause boomers are the first generacent.economy cause percent and demoralized bottlenecks and shortages will boomers are the first genera-Department under Treasury the also generated tion to face the task of passing The age required their plans, said Alan Reason 2: Nobody knows what millions of Americans.

The ’90son raise prices.

So far, this hasn’t tion to for facefull theSocial task of passing on Timothy Secretary F. Glickstein, Geithner a kstein, a Reason 2: Nobody knows what 200,000 jobs per month. their boom knowledge to machines and Security benefits also itrisen. managing at WillistoTowers ‘retirement’ tech ultimately led to the happened. means anymore. their has knowledge to machines and director contributed significantly the Towers ‘retirement’ means anymore.

As for the stock market, rose computer programs — asfinancial well as to Americans born 1937 As workers become consuldevastating 2007-2009 Themore current economic computer programs well as who to helped oversee the surturnaround. the surAs more workers become consul$18.8 trillion frombefore its low pointbe-— asWatson apprentices and Recession. junior employees came eligible for full election, Socialand Security vey.The They not know tants or accept temporary gigs, their crisis and Great expansion began in mid-2009 apprentices junior employees casemay for Trump rests themon themtants or accept temporaryin gigs, their 2009 to Trump’s — setbacks and benefits isattoage 65. Boomers and are selves.

Evento if respect they do,the they may be relationship with employers is It’s almost astensions if there’sare anbound and has already passed the 1960s — setbacks and tensions his bound refusal may be relationship with employers according Wilshire.

Given the to arise. law requiring that the others born after 1960 won’t reticent to discuss their financial changing.

Boomers’ (106 ties with their unwritten boom for longevity months, tospans, arise. conventional wisdom that the nancial changing. Boomers’ ties different with their time the get full dobe yousucceeded translate that busibenefits untilis67.inexact, make themselves employers may be more tenuous big“How booms by big from 1961 to 1969).

It is now “How dobut youittranslatesituation that busi-orannual economy’s growth ratevulis ves vulemployers may be morecomparison tenuous ness knowledge into an algoWorkers always transparto replacement by commitfrom the start. the end, busts.

With luck, maybe history approaching theInrecord, the their nessthe knowledge an limited algonow to a modest ommitfrom the start. In the end, their aren’t emphasizes that stock surgeinto nerable rithm?”

Glickstein entunravel with Trump’s their employers about to a retirement bonds are more to unravel won’t repeat itself.asked.

1990s boom (120 likely months, from rithm?”

Glickstein asked.ting 2npercent, far lowerdate. than the bonds are more likely to preceded election. n n

to retire?

T

Who brought us this long boom?

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BOOKS

KLMNO WEEKLY

Triangle of love, hate during a hunt

For many poor, Ivy League is a shock

F ICTION

N ONFICTION

K

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K RISTIN H ANNAH

ate Quinn follows her word-of-mouth bestseller, “The Alice Network,” with another compulsively readable historical novel about courageous women who dare to break the mold of what’s expected of them. At the heart of “The Huntress” is a woman accused of committing unspeakable war crimes against children in Poland during World War II. The novel begins with this unnamed woman on the run, afraid that her past has finally caught up with her.

From there, the novel breaks into three story lines, told by three narrators, in alternating timelines. Quinn effectively uses this structure to deliberately reveal the past in an increasingly suspenseful story about characters who will risk their lives to track down Lorelei Vogt, known as the Huntress.

The most vivid of these threads begins before the war and centers on Nina Markova, one of the famed Russian bomber pilots known as the Night Witches. The backstory of this smart, ferocious, unconventional female character is mesmerizing — a girl growing up dirt-poor in a nearly savage family on the ice-cold banks of a lake in the farthest reaches of Siberia. After a dark and tragic childhood, Nina finds peace in the air and purpose in fighting. But it is after her stint with the Night Witches, when she is struggling to survive in war-torn Poland, that she comes face to face with the female Nazi known as the Huntress.

In 1950s Boston, aspiring photographer Jordan McBride is surprised to learn that her gentle, antiques-dealer father has fallen in love with a beautiful but secretive German woman named Anneliese, whose young daughter, Ruth, is so traumatized by the past that she barely speaks. Jordan tries to accept her father’s girlfriend, then wife, but she senses that something is wrong with Anneliese’s story. After uncomfortable accusations fly, Anneliese ex-

plains away troubling evidence about her past by recounting the horrors she and Ruth lived through during the war and the emotional scars they carry. Ultimately, Jordan forms a close bond with her lovely stepmother — and with Ruth — and tries to believe that Anneliese is everything she says she is, even though Jordan can’t quite rid herself of a lingering sense of disquiet.

In England, former war correspondent Ian Graham has become obsessed with bringing Nazi war criminals to justice. Of personal interest is the lethal Nazi woman who killed his brother in cold blood. The only person who has ever seen the huntress and lived is Nina Markova, with whom Ian has a complicated past. At long last, Ian has a legitimate lead, which takes him, his charming partner, Tony Rodomovsky, and Nina to Boston.

Quinn braids these story lines and characters together in a seamless narrative that builds toward a dramatic showdown. Although Ian’s viewpoint is less persuasive than those of the female characters, he is an engaging presence.

Along the way, he finds the peace that eluded him after his years as a war correspondent, and Jordan comes to terms with what it means to be an independent woman in a time and place not quite ready to welcome women as such. The love story that emerges between Jordan and Tony is refreshing and straightforward and hints at the social changes in the years to come.

“The Huntress” is sure to be a hit with fans of commercial World War II fiction. Nina’s and Jordan’s narratives truly sing in this powerful novel about unusual women facing sometimes insurmountable odds with grace, grit, love and tenacity. n Kristin Hannah is the best-selling author of more than 20 novels, including “The Nightingale” and “The Great Alone.”

T THE HUNTRESS

By Kate Quinn William Morrow. 560 pp. $16.99

THE PRIVILEGED POOR How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students

By Anthony Abraham Jack Harvard.

276 pp. $27.95

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BY

L AURA P APPANO

heir joyous YouTube videos go viral: poor kids getting accepted into Ivy League colleges. We see them crying, dancing, screaming, and we assume these young people have won “a golden ticket,” as sociologist Anthony Abraham Jack puts it.

But the reality for these high achievers is often something quite different. For a kid from a disadvantaged home or community, landing at an exclusive college can be dislocating, oppressive, even suffocating. In his book, “The Privileged Poor,” Jack reveals how top colleges often fail these heavily recruited students once they’re on campus.

The universities compete for low-income kids, students of color and first-generation students.

“But then, once the students are there,” Jack writes, the colleges “maintain policies that not only remind those students of their disadvantage, but even serve to highlight it.”

In many respects, the institutions reflect the wealth inequality that spans the nation and demonstrate an inability to properly address it. The kids may be top students, but the culture of money and luxury brands that infests the campuses leaves them feeling like lower-class outcasts rather than full members of the community. “Money,” writes Jack, “remains a requirement for full citizenship in college, despite institutional declarations to the contrary.”

Jack conducted more than 250 hours of interviews over two years with 103 students at an elite college in the northeastern United States, which he does not identify but refers to as “Renowned University.” He bases his research on this one institution, he said, because “the conditions I have identified are common to selective colleges across the country.” He contends that his anonymous approach allowed him freer access to students and

institutional research. His interviews turn up rich detail and troubling insights. What Jack discovered challenges us to think carefully about the campus lives of poor students and the responsibility elite institutions have for not only their education but also their social and economic mobility.

Jack, who was once a Head Start kid in the distressed Miami community of Coconut Grove and is now an assistant professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, offers a key distinction in assessing the experiences of poor kids on elite campuses. Not all lower-income students are the same, he points out. Their different experiences preparing for college influence their success once they arrive.

Jack distinguishes between what he calls the Privileged Poor, those who went to prep schools before college, and the Doubly Disadvantaged, those who have not.

“The Privileged Poor know a hybrid reality,” Jack writes. “They know the dangers of distressed communities and worry about the people they love who still call those places home. They also know the joys of burying their feet deep in foreign sands while studying a second language, and they know which fork to use when being served a multicourse dinner at the Biltmore or the home of an alumnus. But this new knowledge doesn’t replace the old; it sits alongside it.”

“The Privileged Poor” breaks new ground on social and educational questions of great import.

Jack believes that some progress has been made in improving the plight of lower-income students — but that much more needs to be done. n Laura Pappano is an education journalist, writer-in-residence at Wellesley Centers for Women, and founder of the New Haven Student Journalism Project.

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