New York Magazine January 20 - February 2, 2020

1 In New York’s latest issue, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reflected on her consequential first year in Congress (“One Year In,” January 6–19). MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle tweeted, “If you read one thing today, make it this.” Columbia Law School’s Kumar Rao added, “Did you know that in her first year in office, @AOC has sponsored 15 pieces of legislation and missed only two of 701 roll-call votes? A fascinating profile.” But Robert Isler questioned why “someone who got all of 16,000 votes to win her district’s nomination before going on to defeat her Republican challenger is receiving such outsized media attention while the voices of a bumper crop of accomplished first-term congresswomen are virtually ignored.” Many took note of Ocasio-Cortez’s comment “In any other country, Joe Biden and I would not be…

BY THE TIME the House voted to impeach Donald Trump in mid-December, a grim anti-climactic feel had settled upon the proceedings. Senate Republicans, unimpressed by hundreds of pages of testimony and documents establishing the president’s scheme to extort Ukraine to smear his domestic opponents, would dispatch the articles of impeachment quickly and—as these things go—quietly. This was their strategy all along: Strip away the drama and turn impeachment into yet another partisan squabble, rather than a historic judgment on Trump’s unfitness for office. Their plan is to smother it with sheer boredom. They may still succeed. But a series of revelations in the intervening month has opened up surprising new avenues of inquiry, forcing Republicans either to allow new evidence at the Senate trial or to openly cooperate in a…

In 2019, animals delayed 107 by dogs 2 by turkeys 18 by possums 238 trains Eric Loegel, vice-president of rapid-transit operations for TWU Local 100, said animal strikes can set off trains’ emergency brakes, causing “a solid 20- or 30-minute delay, sometimes more.” 6 by birds 2 by cats 16 by geese 87 by raccoons Some critters were more annoying than others. On January 2, one DOG on the Williamsburg Bridge caused … 39 service changes 2 hour delays 14 different trains One raccoon hung out on the Nevins Street platforms for months. Nicknamed Chepe, he was dubbed the “new pizza rat.” RACCOONS delayed 383% more trains in 2019 than 2018 By mid-December, there were …  33 INCIDENTS CAUSED BY ANIMALS 11 involved trash pandas “ The Brighton Beach line…

“I HAVE ALWAYS FELT super-black, like black as fuck, but I feel extra black as fuck when I wear this bag,” says Raven Baker, age 24, a video producer and social-media editor living in Brooklyn. She’s talking about Telfar’s Shopping Bag, of which she owns four. A simple, boxy carryall with double shoulder straps and top handles, it comes in three sizes, costs between $150 and $257, and has become a symbol of group identity for young, creative New Yorkers, especially queer people and people of color. The bag has been carried by artists like Solange, Selena Gomez, and A$AP Ferg. It appeared at the Met Gala on Moonlight actor Ashton Sanders, who was accompanying Telfar Clemens, the bag’s designer. But the real power comes from its many young fans,…

IN MID-JANUARY, at the conclusion of a special meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society, the venerable free-market organization, after appearances by Condoleezza Rice and Niall Ferguson, Peter Thiel was slated to give closing remarks on “Big Tech and the Question of Scale.” The keynote was the latest in a series of public remarks and interviews in which the PayPal founder and Facebook investor showed his prominence in conservative politics. Thiel has long been a political donor; in 2016, he gave $4 million across various campaigns, including $1 million to a super- PAC supporting Trump, on whose behalf Thiel spoke at the Republican National Convention. He’s known to have funded right-wing hoaxer James O’Keefe and has been an enthusiastic sponsor of organizations for activists and intellectuals, like The Stanford Review, a…

“We don’t mind the kids fighting,”the aide said. In the final days before the Iowa caucuses every four years, it’s typical for campaign aides and reporters, and baristas and taxi drivers, and any Iowan who’s ever turned on a television or heard a radio ad, to try predicting which presidential candidates will win and which ones will fall flat. But this year is different. Just two weeks out, as the outcome of the race should be taking shape, almost no one in the state—much less the campaign operatives paid to project confidence to anyone who’ll listen—is comfortable even hazarding a shadow of a guess about the Democratic caucuses. This is, in part, the product of a hangover from the 2016 experience there, when Donald Trump happened and Ted Cruz won…