THE ATLANTIC – Politics | Politics & Government

In February 2016, after exchanging email pleasantries with the left-wing public intellectual Noam Chomsky and extending an invitation to his private island, Jeffrey Epstein recommended an article. “On a different note, you have encouraged me to look at data, no holds barred,” Epstein wrote before linking to “Race and IQ: Genes That Predict Racial Intelligence Differences” from the Right Stuff, an openly white-supremacist website and a pioneer of the online alt-right. The article argued that different races have differing levels of intelligence and that there is a genetic basis for the disparity.The exchange was included in the Department of Justice’s latest public release of the Epstein files and is one of the clearest examples of the disgraced financier’s interest in “race science,” the pseudoscientific practice of ascribing racial inequities to genetics. It is a way of thinking that has been refuted on multiple levels. IQ is a complex trait that… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.

On New Year’s Day, Zohran Mamdani completed his inauguration festivities and departed for Brooklyn. In the working-class neighborhood of East Flatbush, the new mayor stepped into the lobby of an old apartment building on Clarkson Avenue and met with tenants on rent strike. Their grievances were many: The building has 201 outstanding housing-code violations, including leaks, roach infestations, black mold, and that most perilous of winter derelictions, a lack of consistent heat and hot water.The young democratic-socialist mayor had championed working-class tenants throughout his campaign, promising to freeze rents in rent-stabilized apartments for four years and even to seize control of buildings owned by slumlords. This trip could be seen as a down payment on his intent.Mamdani faced reporters and photographers in the lobby. “Landlords have been allowed to mistreat their tenants with impunity,” he declared. “That ends today.” Cea Weaver, the new director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.

Ken Martin has one of those resting dread faces, as if he’s bracing for someone to dump a bucket of rocks on his head. His nervous eyes make him look chronically unsettled—which is probably appropriate for someone trying to run the Democratic National Committee these days.“The political equivalent of being a fire hydrant” is how Martin describes his job, and then helpfully explains the image to anyone not grasping it: “You get pissed on by everyone.” This is a favorite line and recurring theme: the put-upon chairman, always being hassled by his easily triggered constituencies.The first time he said this to me, the week before Thanksgiving, the triggered included Martin’s own employees. He had been dealing with a staff revolt following his November 12 announcement that the DNC would be ending its generous work-from-home guidelines. Everyone would be expected to return to headquarters full-time, Martin told his staff, starting in… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.

In the aftermath of Alex Pretti’s killing in Minneapolis, my Instagram algorithm served up a never-ending carousel of sizzling rage. Most of that rage was directed toward the country’s immigration-enforcement agencies, while some, of course, was aimed at defending them. But I wasn’t expecting the post from Blake Guichet.“There’s a difference between compassion that is grounded and compassion that is hijacked,” Guichet, a pro-Trump Christian influencer who posts on Instagram under the handle “thegirlnamedblake,” had typed on butter-yellow slides. “You do not owe the internet a statement on the current tragedy.” In her caption, the Louisiana mom added that she had chosen to “opt out of the cycle of Internet outrage.”I was surprised to see this, because Guichet so often opts in to the news cycle. During last year’s government shutdown, she logged on to explain that SNAP benefits are part of a “system of reliance.” She has posted seven… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.

Veronica was born in California into a family with roots in Mexico. She flies the American flag outside her home on national holidays, and proudly belts out “The Star-Spangled Banner” with her hand over her heart at sporting events. Sitting in the bleachers at her son’s baseball game last month, Veronica started chatting with another mom in Spanish. Then she stopped and looked around, wondering if other parents might suspect that the women were undocumented and report them to immigration authorities. Is this going to get me in trouble? she recalled thinking.Veronica’s concern has only deepened. Two weeks ago, after watching immigration agents arrest and kill U.S. citizens in Minneapolis, she talked with her 14-year-old son about how he should behave if law enforcement asked whether he was in the country legally. If it happened when they were together, she told him, agents would be more likely to focus on… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.