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416 lines
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<title>28 February, 2023</title>
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<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An Anniversary of Destruction, Loss, and Bravery in Ukraine</strong> - Ukrainians have responded with remarkable dignity and courage, but there is little to romanticize one year into the Russian invasion. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/essay/an-anniversary-of-destruction-loss-and-bravery-in-ukraine">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How the Government Cancelled Betty Ann’s Debts</strong> - For a ninety-one-year-old law-school graduate, the Department of Education discharged more than three hundred thousand dollars in student debt. Could relief be that simple? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-the-government-forgave-betty-anns-debts">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What Is Ron DeSantis Doing to Florida’s Public Liberal-Arts College?</strong> - DeSantis is not simply inveighing against progressive control of institutions. He is using his powers as governor to remake them. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/what-is-ron-desantis-doing-to-floridas-public-liberal-arts-college">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Battling Corruption in Ukraine—and the U.S.</strong> - The Biden Administration calls for greater financial transparency around the world. This country could use more of it, too. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/battling-corruption-in-ukraine-and-the-us">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Jeffrey Sachs’s Great-Power Politics</strong> - The economist discusses what the U.S. gets wrong about Putin and the war in Ukraine. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/jeffrey-sachss-great-power-politics">link</a></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>The shadowy puzzle-box pleasures of Chinese spy thriller Hidden Blade</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/1MAYfxU86TR7mx5SXsh02XeR2bM=/36x0:1041x754/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72021016/HiddenBlade_OfficialStillimage_WellGoUSA_1340x754_5.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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Wang Yibo and Eric Wang in Cheng Er’s moody, shadowy spy thriller <em>Hidden Blade</em>, now in cinemas. | Well Go USA
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Satisfyingly cerebral, Hidden Blade features a masterful Tony Leung and a breakout performance from Wang Yibo.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ye0wQW">
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Toward the end of <em>Hidden Blade (</em>无名), the arty Chinese World War II spy thriller that has now reached US cinemas, everything comes to a halt.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xJbb3C">
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“Matte kudasai,” Wang Yibo, playing the canny, careful Secretary Ye, says in silky Japanese. <em>Wait, please. </em>
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="g8Gq45">
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And then we all — the character he’s talking to, the camera, the film score, the audience, the movie — slow down and wait. We wait for him to light a cigarette, take a drag, then another. We wait for him to look at his reflection. We watch him, wreathed in smoke, take his time.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Dv6Zae">
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With a lesser actor, this would feel excessive, showy; it would flatten the moment. But this is Wang Yibo, star of <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/3/27/21192718/the-untamed-netflix-review-rec-mdzs-cql"><em>The Untamed</em></a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/22630249/one-good-thing-street-dance-of-china-wang-yibo"><em>Street Dance of China</em></a>, former K-pop idol, sometime motorcycle racer, multitalented polymath, and multinational heartthrob. In the pause, tension and dark purpose coil in his jawline, his shoulders, in every flick of his wrist. I have never wanted to look at anything more in my life.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BEsvKf">
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<em>Hidden Blade</em> has gone largely unnoticed in mainstream US media, usually getting name-checked as the legendary Tony Leung’s latest film. The New York Times gave it a kind but mixed <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/16/movies/hidden-blade-review.html">capsule review</a>. Other outlets that bothered to review it did so poorly, with multiple <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/hidden-blade-movie-review-2023">reviewers</a> <a href="https://rogersmovienation.com/2023/02/16/movie-review-chinas-wwii-intrigues-and-treachery-fighting-japan-with-a-hidden-blade/">unable</a> to tell cast members apart from one another (!), a handful misunderstanding and <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/hidden-blade-movie-review-2023">misstating</a> the plot, one reviewer <a href="https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/movies-tv/hidden-blade-review-china-tony-leung-17784890">dismissing</a> the entire cast apart from Leung. <a href="http://www.jbspins.com/2023/02/the-hidden-blade-starring-little-tony.html">Several</a> <a href="http://www.markreviewsmovies.com/reviews/H/hiddenblade-2023.htm">wrote</a> it <a href="https://www.theilluminerdi.com/2023/02/23/hidden-blade-review/">off</a> as a propaganda film.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9pVtRu">
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But <em>Hidden Blade</em>, from writer-director Cheng Er, deserves a much better critical assessment than this. It serves propaganda only in the way that the average war movie might glorify the homeland — think <a href="https://www.vox.com/23141487/top-gun-maverick-us-military-hollywood"><em>Top Gun: Maverick</em></a>. In this case, that means a homeland battered by a brutal Japanese occupation. Our timeline centers around Republic-era China, several years after the Nanjing Massacre. The country’s combative factions — the Japanese occupants, the Kuomintang leadership, the current puppet government, and the underground communist resistance — all vie to control China’s future as the war wages around them. Our main characters, Director He (Leung) and his subordinate Secretary Ye (Wang), both work for the Japanese regime in Shanghai, rooting out members of each of the opposing factions and doing the governor’s bidding. But spies are everywhere, and their allegiances aren’t always obvious — sometimes not even to themselves.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GsdIou">
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<em>Hidden Blade</em>’s production house, Bona Film Group, loosely placed this film into a “trilogy” called the <em>China Victory Trilogy.</em> (The prior film, <em>The Battle at Lake Changjin</em> (2021), was a mega-blockbuster; this film had a far more lowkey release<em>, </em>though it’s been such a success — closing on $1 billion RMB, it’s <a href="http://life.china.com.cn/web/xctg/detail2_2023_02/23/3846369.html">reportedly</a> the top-grossing art film in Chinese history — that there’s talk of a sequel.) Each film, linked thematically but not materially, highlights a different group of ordinary people battling a war. This outing explores the pressures placed on WWII spies who often had to work in complete isolation for months and even years; the film’s Chinese title translates to <em>Anonymous. </em>Cheng takes the smoke-and-mirrors obfuscation of the spy genre literally: Ye spends much of the time he’s onscreen symbolically mirroring He, while studying himself in mirrors, being looked at through mirrors, and functioning as a looking-glass for the film itself.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dguc1h">
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This could all easily feel like shallow gloss with little substance, and the plot seems relatively thin; but over the course of the film, that plot reveals itself to be a tightly edited jigsaw awaiting your assembly.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="p0Lso1">
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This is a big part of why repeated viewings of <em>Hidden Blade</em> are such a pleasure (I saw it six times in four days). The film is a metaphorical escape room you find your way through, muddling at first, then quicker and quicker until you arrive at an open door. Cheng’s aesthetic style flickers through the muted action of the first half, from Godard-like formalism to von Trier-esque visual war poetry to outright Tarkovsky homages. But steadily the stylistic flourishes give way to a riveting, sparse thriller with phenomenal fight scenes, staged with excellent attention to setting and detail by fight choreographer Chao Chen. Cai Tao’s cinematography has lingered with me for days, with some shots cracking the whole film wide open for me on third or fourth watch.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="L7tL0K">
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This film basks in tiny thematic details — the timing of a musical cue, the symbolism of a tableau, the way a character’s face is lit between light and shadow. Then there’s the symbology; my friends have been discussing the thematic element of food in this movie for days: The symbolism of an intimidating bowl of drunken shrimp, the political nuances of debates over French cuisine, the secrets of an unassuming box of pastry.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Kkd8GL">
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In other words, <em>Hidden Blade’s</em> cerebral challenges invite you to play the games its characters are playing. It opens itself to the audience more and more with every repeat viewing. The supporting cast makes the most of limited emotional real estate; Eric Wang and Zhou Xun sink their teeth into their very different roles in the spy game. Tony Leung’s performance in particular grows craftier and more intelligent on every viewing as you begin to understand the veneer of polite soullessness around which he layers his real, veiled emotions. The moments he lets them peek through are masterful to behold.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ne5QgF">
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But as much as Tony Leung was made for subtle but heady roles like this, <em>Hidden Blade</em> belongs to Wang Yibo, and so does this review.
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</p>
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<figure class="e-image">
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<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/xMzF9NqbuWsZLyi4WePylNq4J14=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24464843/HB5.jpg"/> <cite>Bona Film Group</cite>
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<figcaption>
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A production still of <em>Hidden Blade</em> featuring Wang Yibo, released for the film’s ¥500m box office. The film has since grossed nearly ¥1 billion.
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="o8AJTk">
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This is Yibo, after all, a 25-year-old wunderkind who spent his childhood training in Korea to become a K-pop idol but who returned to China and became a Chinese entertainer slash <a href="https://www.vox.com/22630249/one-good-thing-street-dance-of-china-wang-yibo">dance star</a> slash actor instead. I first wrote about Yibo here in 2020 in my review of the historical fantasy series <em>The Untamed</em>. I <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/3/27/21192718/the-untamed-netflix-review-rec-mdzs-cql">described him</a> then as “conveying Grand Canyons of emotional depth” through “mesmerizing infinitesimal facial adjustments.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GEL51r">
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Since then, I have watched Yibo disappear into one strikingly different character after another, embodying them all with talent and skill beyond his years; I have watched him deliver <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edVnfGw3oWE">performance</a> after <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyGAhaYbxBY">performance</a>, transforming himself onstage and off. He has a star quality that’s hard to describe until you truly get acquainted with his performances and his persona. On first impression, he’s rarely the hottest or the strongest or the glitziest entertainer in a room — but he’s the one who unfailingly blows you away in the end, the one you can’t stop talking about.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ugG8R9">
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As Secretary Ye, Yibo packs the same intensity: He smolders and throbs and pulses his way through <em>Hidden Blade</em>, talking only rarely but speaking volumes with the soulful eyes that first captivated me and a jillion other fans three years ago.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iSyTlK">
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Since <em>The Untamed</em>, Yibo has become a massive star in his home country. He was originally scheduled to make his film debut in the much more high-profile <a href="https://www.19fortyfive.com/2022/09/the-j-20-stealth-fighter-could-be-the-star-in-chinas-version-of-top-gun/"><em>Born to Fly</em></a> (now <a href="https://thechinaproject.com/2023/01/13/10-most-anticipated-chinese-movies-of-2023/">scheduled</a> for a spring release), in which he stars as the equivalent to Tom Cruise in <em>Top Gun</em>. As much pressure as a role like that must be to play, the weight Yibo carries in <em>Hidden Blade </em>feels almost heavier. Cheng has talked at length about how the more he saw Yibo act, the bigger his part became; he rewrote the film around Yibo as production progressed, eventually transforming Ye from a smaller part into the soul of the movie.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JNDjvu">
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That’s a huge responsibility, but Yibo shoulders it effortlessly. He immerses himself in Ye’s tortured psyche; he trembles and seethes and changes the mood of an entire scene with a single sharp glance. A debut like this, from an actor this young, in a part this intense, carrying the entire film beside one of China’s greatest living actors, all while juggling four different languages (Japanese, Mandarin, and Cantonese and Shanghainese dialects) feels remarkable. Yibo’s performance seals <em>Hidden Blade</em>’s status as an unexpected pleasure. Once finally assembled, its cinematic intricacies yield infinite rewards.
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</p></li>
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<li><strong>How the US can stick the landing, beat inflation, and avoid a recession</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="A woman picking a bottle of milk out of a refrigerated case in a grocery store." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/EM03KUSZQlZZXFpllJMg0Y-LU8k=/320x0:5440x3840/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72020978/1247150392.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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A customer shops at a grocery store in Brooklyn on February 14, 2023, amid reports that inflation was still rising. | Michael Nagle/Xinhua via Getty Images
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The path to a soft landing is narrow, but the consequences of missing it are severe.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4iUKfp">
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Nobody knows what’s going to happen with the economy. That’s always true, but especially in 2023. And it’s not just a matter of uncertainty: There’s a plausible case that we face three mutually exclusive scenarios.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kOBUTt">
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Either we face a “hard landing,” where rising interest rates push the US into a recession; a soft landing, where the Federal Reserve and policymakers can bring down inflation without crashing the economy; or no landing at all — the economy grows even faster with inflation staying high.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="quQgcb">
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The soft landing scenario is the one policymakers would most like to see — it would mean the US brought down inflation while ensuring a strong labor market.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZJnzfX">
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The level of optimism about a soft landing was always wavering; in the last month it even briefly seemed realistic, until a series of data revisions and new numbers brought a revival of pessimism. The Commerce Department said Friday that the <a href="https://www.bea.gov/data/personal-consumption-expenditures-price-index#:~:text=The%20PCE%20price%20index%2C%20released,included%20in%20the%20GDP%20release.">Personal Consumption Expenditures price index</a>, the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation, had climbed 5.4 percent in January, suggesting inflation isn’t slowing down as much as previously thought.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="39Iskt">
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It’s not time to despair yet. A soft landing is still possible, but pulling it off will depend on a lot of factors, and the consequences of failing are severe.
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</p>
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<h3 id="su7gge">
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Previously on “The Economy”
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="D57u5B">
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The economic recovery since 2021 has had two major features: the strongest labor market in 50 years, and inflation that’s been higher and broader than most analysts predicted. Inflation first rose in the summer of 2021 for some goods affected by pandemic shutdowns and weakened supply chains, notably automobiles. It soon broadened to more categories, including services. From September 2021 to September 2022, core consumer price index (CPI) inflation saw a <a href="https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2022/consumer-prices-for-shelter-up-6-6-percent-for-year-ended-september-2022.htm">6.6 percent</a> increase, well above pre-pandemic levels.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VjDOsp">
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As 2022 went on, supply chains began to normalize, and housing and rental prices began to fall. This, however, led to a measurement issue when it came to inflation. Just because used car prices fell, did it mean the country was seeing a sustained drop in inflation? What about housing prices, which have a significant lag — meaning inflation can be measured as higher for a period even as housing prices are falling?
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="K9KzQo">
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Over the fall of 2022, officials at the Federal Reserve came up with an answer to gauge this: Look at services, excluding housing, with the idea that inflation in non-housing services is most sensitive to demand. If they saw this come down, they would understand progress was being made. And progress looked like it was happening.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EEjjGm">
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Over the last several months of 2022, the US saw a remarkable decline in inflation. It looked like core inflation fell by over half, <a href="https://twitter.com/mtkonczal/status/1613536591766761473">from</a> around 6.5 percent to 3 percent. However, that optimism soon ran into two problems. First was a series of <a href="https://www.bls.gov/cpi/seasonal-adjustment/home.htm">revisions to the seasonal adjustment methodology</a> that the BLS uses — it turns out that inflation had fallen less than anyone thought, more like a <a href="https://twitter.com/jasonfurman/status/1624093631929020416?lang=en">decline</a> of 4 percent to 4.5 percent.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HEZuhc">
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Second was new January numbers for inflation, with core CPI inflation for that month around <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm">5 percent</a> on an annual basis — still lower than a year ago, but now moving sideways rather than downward. The sense of momentum toward the endgame of fighting inflation suddenly was replaced with a feeling of being stuck in the middle.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SIrCB2">
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So what happens next? There are three paths forward; let’s start with the worst option.
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</p>
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<h3 id="ONBIw2">
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Engineering a recession is like tearing fabric
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="emjBuE">
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Will the Federal Reserve respond to this pessimism about a soft landing by causing a recession? This is still the consensus forecast call, although it’s less of a certainty than it seemed in October 2022, when <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-17/forecast-for-us-recession-within-year-hits-100-in-blow-to-biden">100 percent of economists surveyed</a> by Bloomberg said the US would have a recession within the year.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5fmpkk">
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To be clear, there’s no evidence that the country is in a recession now or that it was in one in 2022. Unemployment is continuing to drop while overall growth remains robust. That’s the opposite of how economists normally characterize a recession.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oCoiXw">
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But there are enough cracks to see how things could change quickly. Investment has <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FPIC1">fallen</a> dramatically and may continue to fall. Consumer spending started to decline in late 2022, though it <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PCE">remains</a> strong. Labor market indicators, such as the rate at which people quit their jobs or the level of wage gains, had been slowing throughout last year.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rgB0GA">
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The Federal Reserve says it wants unemployment to increase. Its most recent compilation of projections found that, through its actions, unemployment will increase to 4.6 percent. That would translate into around 2 million people losing their jobs — pain that would not be evenly felt. The last time the unemployment rate was around 4.6 percent, in October 2021, 7.7 percent of Black workers were unemployed, <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=10vju">compared with</a> 4 percent of white workers.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GDsOAI">
|
||
And that assumes it’s even possible for the Federal Reserve to raise unemployment just a little bit. But as researchers at Employ America <a href="https://www.employamerica.org/blog/the-fed-is-trying/">have found</a>, any time unemployment goes up 1 percent, it tends to keep going up much further. There’s no way, historically, to cause a tiny recession; once unemployment starts increasing, it just keeps increasing. The metaphor isn’t turning down the heat on a stove; as Nancy Teeters, the sole dissenter against then-Federal Reserve chair Paul Volcker’s hikes in the early 1980s, <a href="https://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-34/reviews/other-peoples-blood-2/">described</a>, it’s “pulling the financial fabric of this country so tight that it’s going to rip. You should understand that once you tear a piece of fabric, it’s very difficult, almost impossible, to put it back together again.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="g9naV5">
|
||
The “never never land” scenario
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zbQzG9">
|
||
Yet, at least among a set of financial analysts, the question isn’t whether there’s a hard or soft landing, it’s why there’d be any landing at all. After the recent January <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2023/2/3/23584939/jobs-report-economy-federal-reserve-inflation-recession-jay-powell">blockbuster</a> number of 517,000 new jobs, this theory was floated in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/09/business/economy/fed-economy-recession-rebound.html">the New York Times</a>, the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/hard-or-soft-landing-some-economists-see-neither-if-growth-accelerates-854846ea">Wall Street Journal</a>, and on <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-02-16/no-landing-us-consumers-haven-t-spent-like-this-since-before-lehman">Bloomberg’s opinion</a> page. This “no landing” scenario predicts that the economy is likely to rebound even further in 2023, with growth picking up and inflation likely staying the same or even increasing.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UANeaX">
|
||
There are several pieces of evidence for this argument: <a href="https://www.atlantafed.org/cqer/research/gdpnow">predictions</a> of increased GDP growth in early 2023, the possibility of a slight rebound in the housing market, and an increase in real wages, with inflation falling <a href="https://twitter.com/mtkonczal/status/1620417650232029185">faster</a> than wage growth in the second half of 2022. A large increase to Social Security payments, along with the new year being a reason for workers to ask for higher wages and firms to increase their prices, could also contribute to further demand increases.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mg7aG6">
|
||
As financial analyst Matt Klein <a href="https://theovershoot.co/p/soft-landing-more-like-no-landing">writes</a>, “The good news is that the humming economy continues to provide more opportunities for more people to produce more of the things we need and want. The bad news is that it seems increasingly unlikely that America will return to pre-pandemic inflation rates without a downturn.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="en3ANq">
|
||
But not all the evidence points in this direction. Economist Justin Bloesch <a href="https://twitter.com/JustinBloesch/status/1627514106382000128">argues</a> that the things we’d expect to be most sensitive to a reaccelerating economy — the number of housing starts, notably — aren’t there. We should distinguish between an economy that is doing well versus one that is accelerating. Job increases coming from more workers entering the labor force, while wages grow more slowly, is a sign of a soft landing, not of no landing at all.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sLd3ke">
|
||
A central <a href="https://twitter.com/NickTimiraos/status/1620076264181862400">disagreement</a> is how quickly the Federal Reserve’s rate hikes are acting to slow the economy. Those who think a recession is coming believe that the rate hikes, which increased the most over the summer and fall of 2022, take a while to take full effect, perhaps on the order of a year or two. Others, including those who wonder if there will be no landing, argue that the impact moves far more quickly. It is disconcerting that there’s so much ambiguity about this central question, but it’s tough to measure.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="Xo4s1H">
|
||
So how does the country get a soft landing?
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1TbwSD">
|
||
Between these extremes of an economy too hot and too cold, is there hope for the Goldilocks just-right scenario? It was not clear whether a soft landing was a real option, a blind hope, or a cynical ploy when it was floated by Fed chair Jerome Powell and others around March 2022. As Powell <a href="https://www.marketplace.org/2022/05/12/fed-chair-jerome-powell-controlling-inflation-will-include-some-pain/">told</a> Marketplace in May 2022, he believed the labor market was so strong that you could decrease demand and inflation and that it would result in fewer job switchers and firms hiring, rather than higher unemployment.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rIsyv5">
|
||
Later that year, Powell <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-31/powell-abandons-soft-landing-goal-as-he-seeks-growth-recession#xj4y7vzkg">backed away</a> from that language and the Fed is now predicting a rise in unemployment that would be hard to see as consistent with a soft landing. But others think a soft landing is possible; as the economist Alan Blinder <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.37.1.101">has documented</a>, it has been done before. The US has already seen inflation drop by one-third without any cost to employment or economic activity. As Powell predicted, job openings declined, wages are still increasing at healthy but lower levels, and inflation has come down.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Up3979">
|
||
But what would have to happen in 2023 for this to continue? Roughly, about five things.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PapWQ7">
|
||
First, the country needs to see advancement on the developments that we know will slow inflation: more productivity and reduced corporate margins and profits. Over the past two years, many people have switched their jobs, moving into higher-skilled and higher-paying roles. Though it takes time, this welcome development should ultimately lead to higher productivity and, thus, lower inflation. Meanwhile, corporate profits remain near record highs because prices are being set higher than the cost of production, which translates into higher inflation for everyday people. If these profits were to come down, either from prices coming down or workers pushing up the share of corporate income going to labor, it would help bring down inflation.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iZdIAh">
|
||
Second, prices for goods would have to remain contained. There’s an assumption that goods are seeing prices in free-fall as supply chains open up, but that is <a href="https://twitter.com/mtkonczal/status/1625491145022390275">driven entirely</a> by used car prices; prices for most other goods are <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm">still increasing</a>. As demand for used cars comes back — the US is still producing <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=10voy">fewer cars</a> than expected without the pandemic — this will likely remain a volatile category. If goods continue to contribute an extra half point to inflation, it’s not clear what will balance it out, unless incomes and spending in our majority-services economy become permanently weaker.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MyLtIw">
|
||
Third, the labor market needs to continue to pull workers into the labor force while having strong but not accelerating wage growth. The backlog in construction means employment there could stay strong even as those parts of the economy cool. Related, fourth, is that demand for housing doesn’t take off again, driving prices higher. There’s significant disagreement about how quickly we should understand the housing market to be cooling. But that it’s not accelerating is part of the case for decline.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3RseTM">
|
||
Finally, the Fed needs to acknowledge the trade-offs it’s facing. Inflation is coming down, though it remains too high. But, as the Fed wants to bring down inflation, it should ask itself how quickly and at what cost. There was no set inflation target during the disinflation of the 1980s and 1990s, and there are many reasons why a larger inflation <a href="https://rooseveltinstitute.org/publications/a-new-framework-for-targeting-inflation-aiming-for-a-range-of-2-to-3-5-percent/">range</a> of 2 to 3.5 percent makes more sense than the firm 2 percent the Fed is currently emphasizing. More research, including <a href="https://www.clevelandfed.org/publications/working-paper/2023/wp-2306-post-covid-inflation-dynamics-higher-for-longer">recent work</a> by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, emphasizes the trade-offs.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZHhBMq">
|
||
When inflation was as high as it was in early 2022, it was hard to balance these concerns. Now, in 2023, it’s essential we do.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="V8SjzZ">
|
||
<em>Mike Konczal is director of macroeconomic analysis at the Roosevelt Institute, where he focuses on full employment, inequality, and the role of public power in a democracy.</em>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UHpbDZ">
|
||
</p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>Cars transformed America. They also made people more vulnerable to the police.</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="Police cars blocking a roadway at sunset." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/UpgFxhXuVJJ9v0i7GAW19VFCSMk=/243x0:4126x2912/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72020918/1234315387.0.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
California Highway Patrol officers block a freeway during a protest sparked by the death of George Floyd in 2020. | Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
How traffic stops became so dangerous for Black drivers.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zCtujy">
|
||
Traffic stops, usually over minor infractions, are one of the most common ways that people interact with police. The frequency with which they <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/31/us/police-traffic-stops-killings.html">turn deadly</a>, often with <a href="https://www.vox.com/21497089/derek-chauvin-george-floyd-trial-police-prosecutions-black-lives-matter">impunity for the officers responsible</a>, has made them a major focal point in the effort to combat police brutality.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y7XaGV">
|
||
In one recent case, police officers in Memphis, Tennessee, pulled over 29-year-old Tyre Nichols for “reckless driving.” Over the next several minutes, <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23574206/tyre-nichols-death-bodycam-video-memphis-police-release">officers brutally beat, kicked, and pepper-sprayed Nichols</a> while screaming <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/29/us/tyre-nichols-video-assault-cops.html">conflicting orders at him</a>. Three days later, Nichols died from his injuries. Investigators have since said they were “unable to substantiate” the claim that he was driving recklessly, and five officers have since been charged in Nichols’s death.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yGXBKX">
|
||
Now, <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/news/memphis-philadelphia-driving-equality-tyre-nichols-20230220.html">Memphis lawmakers are considering legislation</a> that would ban officers from stopping drivers for certain low-level driving offenses. The bill, which is modeled after a Philadelphia law, attempts to reduce the potential for deadly interactions between the police and Black drivers, <a href="https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2020/may/black-drivers-more-likely-to-be-stopped-by-police.html">who are pulled over more frequently than drivers of other races</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Nx5lly">
|
||
How did we reach the point where traffic stops escalate into police killings? In her 2019 book, <a href="https://www.law.columbia.edu/faculty/sarah-seo"><em>Policing the Open Road: How Cars Transformed American Freedom</em></a>, Sarah Seo, a historian of criminal law and procedure and professor at Columbia Law School, examines how the automotive era upended society, dramatically expanded the power and authority of the police, and altered our society in the process, resulting in the traffic enforcement system we have today. Vox spoke to Seo about the legal, social, and historical forces that shaped our modern, deadly approach to traffic enforcement.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="isPcgg">
|
||
<em>This interview has been edited for length and clarity.</em>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4cx7eK">
|
||
<strong>I want to start by asking you about the police killing of Tyre Nichols. These incidents of brutality are, sadly, not unusual in the United States. How did this traffic stop turn so deadly?</strong>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OTulIc">
|
||
The unit that pulled over Mr. Nichols was a specialized crime task force. They are trained and delegated to fight crime, and they use minor traffic stops to begin their investigation. So you have a law enforcement unit that’s trained to investigate some of the more serious violent crimes using traffic enforcement as a starting point. It should be totally separate. Traffic law enforcement is an important government function because traffic safety is important, but that shouldn’t be co-opted by a law enforcement unit that’s not trying to enforce traffic laws.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/omX143nIjKjyhmfv3hpDvvC_UZk=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24464556/1460060592.jpg"/> <cite>Scott Olson/Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
RowVaughn Wells, the mother of Tyre Nichols, attends a January 27 press conference following her son’s death.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MBlOIK">
|
||
<strong>How did the advent of the automotive age shape law enforcement in America?</strong>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xKLUr0">
|
||
Driving and owning cars became very common pretty quickly in American society. Government officials had no idea why almost everybody seemed to be violating traffic laws. Fatal accidents were really common, especially in the early years, to the point where people had morally righteous anger whenever an accident resulted in death. [In his book, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/655382/fighting-traffic-by-peter-d-norton/"><em>Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of The Motor Age in the American City</em></a>] historian Peter Norton talks about this huge marketing shift that the automobile industry had to do to overcome the anger at the chaos and destruction that cars produced. It resulted in a lot of accidents, and also just traffic. It was chaos on the streets. So municipalities throughout the country passed an increasing number of traffic laws, and everybody violated them. They tried different ways of getting people to obey them, what I call 19th-century forms of getting people to comply with norms: churches, automobile associations, civic associations, and none of those worked. So they resorted pretty quickly to police law enforcement.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TzZY6W">
|
||
Usually, historians, we emphasize change over time, but this is a constant over time: People get really mad at the people who try to enforce traffic laws. And so given the hostility and aggression that enforcers experienced, what municipalities did was increase their discretionary power, so disobeying an order of traffic police became a misdemeanor. Their authority was increased to manage the difficulty of car drivers. At the same time, car drivers hated to be policed in their cars. They were really irate. A lot of the training of traffic enforcers [involved being told to] exercise discretion.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4X43M0">
|
||
<strong>You write in your book about how the Supreme Court dealt with new, difficult questions about cars, crime and law enforcement. Can you tell me about </strong><a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/267/132/"><em><strong>Carroll v. United States</strong></em></a><strong> and what it meant for the rights of drivers?</strong>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0mUfOR">
|
||
Before the Carroll case [in 1925], law enforcement needed a warrant to make a search. That became impracticable with cars because they could be driven off in a moment and there was no time to get a warrant. So the Supreme Court, in the <em>Carroll </em>case, created a warrant exception to say that an officer doesn’t need a warrant to stop and search a car if they have reason to believe that there’s evidence of a crime or contraband inside the car.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uCf7sL">
|
||
For a misdemeanor, police officers also needed to see that misdemeanor taking place with their own eyes, which basically means they knew that a crime was being committed. By saying you don’t need a warrant, even for misdemeanors, that basically watered down the standard for when police officers could act as well. So essentially, the <em>Carroll</em> doctrine really transformed and expanded law enforcement powers. It was the first time that the court constitutionally recognized and authorized police discretion. It gave officers the discretion to act to search if they had reason to believe that there was evidence of a crime, rather than actually knowing it.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div class="c-float-right">
|
||
<div id="j30Sy7">
|
||
<div>
|
||
|
||
</div>
|
||
</div>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4ICHTA">
|
||
This is where the traffic part of the story becomes important. Because pretty quickly, there are so many traffic laws and so many traffic violations and now officers actually don’t even need probable cause under <em>Carroll </em>to stop a car, they just need to see a traffic violation.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lKrcCb">
|
||
In Mr. Nichols’s case, they didn’t have any reason to suspect him of anything, right? They had a hunch. Maybe they just wanted to pick on somebody. They didn’t even have probable cause to believe that he had guns or drugs in his car. So what did they do? <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/01/28/1152319138/tyre-nichols-arrest-what-went-wrong-policing-experts">[They pulled him over on a] traffic violation</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Lk35mV">
|
||
<strong>Practically speaking, what does this mean for Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights, which are meant to protect us and our property from “unreasonable searches and seizures”?</strong>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MQBeex">
|
||
I think the best way to answer that is to actually quote from law enforcement themselves. There’s a text that I analyze in my book called <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Tactics-Criminal-Patrol-Discovery-Survival/dp/0935878122"><em>Tactics for Criminal Patrol</em></a>, and that book says the Fourth Amendment is your tool. Law enforcement are trained to view the Fourth Amendment as not a protector of our privacy rights but as a tool to do what they want.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Q4zhEk">
|
||
In an automotive society, it is very watered down. It doesn’t do much.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5GvEdi">
|
||
<strong>Wait, how could it be their tool? How could it be interpreted as anything other than a protection of the rights of an individual against unreasonable searches?</strong>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mp2Xl4">
|
||
Because they have strategies for complying with the Fourth Amendment, and the strategies that they use under the Fourth Amendment are authorized. The Fourth Amendment gives them a veneer of legitimacy.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8pLVP8">
|
||
A<strong> </strong>familiar pattern in these cases is they’ll stop someone for a minor traffic violation. They can’t search the car at that point still, because <em>Carroll </em>says you need probable cause to search the car. So the traffic stop becomes a moment where they have to gather facts that allows them ultimately to get to search the car. So there’s a doctrine of consent. That is, the police can say, “Can I search the car?” And if you say “sure,” you’ve given your consent, the Fourth Amendment doesn’t apply.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NMiAtZ">
|
||
There’s all these power dynamics involved in getting consent. A lot of people don’t know that you can say no. And the Court held that under the Fourth Amendment, the police don’t have to tell drivers that they have the right to say no. So under Fourth Amendment law, as the Court has explained it, the police can pull somebody over for a minor violation, ask to search the car without telling them they have the right to say no, and then [if they say yes] search the car, and it’s given legitimacy to the entire interaction.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Bd3Qj5">
|
||
<strong>I think people are also confused about what the cops can or can’t do when they pull you over. You mentioned the Jay-Z song “99 Problems” in your book. He talks about how his “glove compartment is locked, so is the trunk in the back and I know my rights so you gon’ need a warrant for that.” Is that right? What should people know about what cops can and cannot do when they pull you over? </strong>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="d8qIcF">
|
||
That “you need a warrant for that” line is wrong, because of the <em>Carroll </em>case. What I always tell my students is when you’re pulled over, and it’s not just about a traffic citation, ask the officer, “Am I free to leave?” because unless law enforcement has at least facts supporting reasonable suspicion that a crime is afoot, they have to let you leave.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5ieckK">
|
||
If they want to keep you longer than that, always ask, “Am I free to leave?” And if they say no, then ask “Why not?” That’s not a huge help, because there’s so many things that law enforcement can say to amount to reasonable suspicion.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eKg7Di">
|
||
One way that police officers have often justified stopping someone for an investigatory stop is to tell the court, “There was an odor of marijuana.” It’s a really easy thing to tell a judge to justify the stop because it’s really hard to disprove it, and judges are very reluctant to disbelieve. There’s a presumption that officers are telling the truth.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iAhL6m">
|
||
<strong>One of the things that really struck me reading your book is how many of these questions about traffic, and what makes humans drive the way they do, and about how we keep people safe, were the same exact debates people were having at the advent of the automotive age. We know discriminatory policing is a huge problem. We also know </strong><a href="https://www.vox.com/23178764/florida-us19-deadliest-pedestrian-fatality-crisis"><strong>road safety is a huge problem</strong></a><strong>. And what we have now is very selective policing that is extraordinarily dangerous to people. So how do we balance those concerns? What does a system that is safe and equitable, and not sort of randomly deadly for Black drivers, look like?</strong>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RfjTso">
|
||
I have two responses to that. I think a good place to start with any policy is to ask the most vulnerable people, and in this case, it’s communities of color. Because the pedestrian accident statistics, from what I hear from the people in this field, <a href="https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/racial-disparities-traffic-fatalities/">it really affects minority communities more</a>, and there’s more deaths and accidents in minority communities. They are experiencing the worst of both safety issues and the policing issues. What do they think is the best way to strike that balance between safety and curbing police brutality? I think that’s a good place to start.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UpSQpl">
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The other answer to your question is, are there ways to enforce traffic laws or even encourage safe driving without using police enforcement? It might not be possible to completely 100 percent eradicate human enforcement, but how close can we get there? I’ve advocated for traffic cameras, and the separation of police units that investigate crime from those enforcing traffic. Those are the two main policies that I’ve argued for.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="phxpFn">
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Technology isn’t 100 percent discrimination-proof, and we have to also be mindful of things like equitable placement of the traffic cameras, we also have to pay attention to things like what are the fees. We have to pay attention to those policies. And we could consider a whole host of other things, but I think that’s a good start. I really like the idea of separating criminal law enforcement from traffic enforcement because traffic enforcement should be something that no one should be scared of.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XGQP15">
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Right now, the situation we have is that people of color, drivers of color, are definitely scared of being pulled over. It’s just harrowing. And you also have police officers saying that traffic stops are the most dangerous part of their jobs, and they’re definitely scared of it. We’re doing something very wrong when everybody’s scared of traffic stops. They should be kind of routine encounters: If you speed, you get a ticket, and that’s it. Just to tone down the anxiety of those encounters, I think, would help a lot. And the way to do that is when people know that when they’re pulled over, it’s not a criminal investigation. It’s just a traffic citation. I think that will go a long way to help.
|
||
</p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
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<ul>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Onus on Smith as another spin challenge awaits Aussies</strong> - The key is sticking to our plans and methods for long periods of time, says stand-in skipper</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Don’t read too much into Rahul’s removal as vice-captain: Rohit</strong> - Team India already planning for World Test Championship final</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Supreme Dance, Wall Street, Forseti, Stormy Ocean and Fast Pace excel</strong> -</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>India will look to drive home the advantage against an Australia plagued by self-doubt</strong> - The visitors have been obsessed with the nature of the surface and veered off from time-tested methods with disastrous consequences; Team India yet to take a call on Rahul/Gill conundrum</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>With one foot in WTC final, India thinking of simulating English conditions in Ahmedabad for fourth India-Australia Test</strong> - There is a strong possibility that India might end up facing Australia in the World Test Championship final</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Dharmana, Botcha urge representatives of local bodies to vote for YSRCP candidate in MLC election</strong> - Party will protect the interests of BCs and Kapus, they say</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Eat nutrient-rich millets, CFTRI director tells students</strong> - Student-Scientist Connect initiative held at the premier food research lab of CSIR as part of Millets Jigyana Programme on the occasion of National Science Day and International Year of Millets</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Gujarat Assembly passes Bill which makes teaching Gujarati language in primary schools mandatory</strong> - The “Gujarat Compulsory Teaching and Learning of Gujarati Language Bill, 2023” was passed unanimously by the 182-member House</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Officials, NGOs plan steps to address rising drug abuse among schoolchildren in Andhra Pradesh</strong> - Women Development and Child Welfare, State Commission for Protection of Child Rights and CRAF organise State-level meeting to identify action plan</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Medicines worth ₹1.5 lakh distributed at free medical camp at Vizianagaram</strong> - NOTE: PHOTO FOLLOWS THE REPORT</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
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||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: Zelensky says situation in Bakhmut worsening</strong> - Russian forces have been trying to capture the eastern city of Bakhmut for over six months.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Rishi Sunak hails new NI Brexit deal but DUP concerns remain</strong> - The PM says the agreement for Northern Ireland is a breakthrough, as many Tory MPs express support.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Italy migrant boat shipwreck: More than 100 people feared dead</strong> - Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni urges EU institutions to to take action to stop migrant boat crossings.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Turkey earthquake: Erdogan seeks forgiveness over quake rescue delays</strong> - The Turkish leader told survivors in one area that tremors and bad weather were to blame.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Wizz Air to suspend Moldova flights over airspace safety</strong> - The suspension, from 14 March, comes after a Russian missile crossed Moldovan skies.</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>LastPass says employee’s home computer was hacked and corporate vault taken</strong> - Already smarting from a breach that stole customer vaults, LastPass has more bad news. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1920551">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>OnePlus 11 Concept brings water cooling to a phone with questionable results</strong> - OnePlus hypes up “Active CryoFlux” but even its own benchmarks aren’t impressive. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1920465">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Study: Bronze Age remains in Israel show signs of trepanation</strong> - Remains of one of two brothers found buried together showed signs of brain surgery. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1920201">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SpaceX unveils “V2 Mini” Starlink satellites with quadruple the capacity</strong> - V2 Mini outperforms first-gen satellites, but full-size V2 must wait for Starship. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1920413">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Lenovo demos laptop that rolls from 13 to 15 inches with the flip of a switch</strong> - OLED laptops with daringly versatile form factors have been a long time coming. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1920286">link</a></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Daughter made up a cute knock knock joke:</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Knock knock Who’s there? Let’s eat… Let’s eat who?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
What are you a cannibal?
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
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|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/mottylthecat"> /u/mottylthecat </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11dco41/daughter_made_up_a_cute_knock_knock_joke/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11dco41/daughter_made_up_a_cute_knock_knock_joke/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>I was reading a history book the other day, and it said the good guys have won every single war.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
How lucky is that?!?
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/SuspiciousPaperclip"> /u/SuspiciousPaperclip </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11dt11f/i_was_reading_a_history_book_the_other_day_and_it/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11dt11f/i_was_reading_a_history_book_the_other_day_and_it/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>I don’t think women should have kids after 35</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
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That’s just too many kids.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Firegoat1"> /u/Firegoat1 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11e17vi/i_dont_think_women_should_have_kids_after_35/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11e17vi/i_dont_think_women_should_have_kids_after_35/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How many teenagers does it take to change a lightbulb?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
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||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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||
I don’t know, like one, three, five? Whatever, I just can’t even…
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Somethinggood4"> /u/Somethinggood4 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11dy01f/how_many_teenagers_does_it_take_to_change_a/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11dy01f/how_many_teenagers_does_it_take_to_change_a/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What drugs do ducks do?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Qwack cocaine
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
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|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/CK_HAMAD48"> /u/CK_HAMAD48 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11dghji/what_drugs_do_ducks_do/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11dghji/what_drugs_do_ducks_do/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
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