#^d 2018-10-30 #^h Weekend Roundup
No Weekend Roundup last week, and I didn't have any intention of doing one this week either. But when I sat down at the computer today, I figured I'd copy a few links (without comments) into the notebook for future reference. Wound up with quite a few. I started with Matthew Yglesias, then decided to stick to the format I used there: boldfacing the author, linking the article. Normally I would group related articles, such as on the shutdown/wall, or the Syria withdrawal, but only in a couple instances did I do that -- mostly when an article by a unique writer adds or counters one I already had pegged. I wound up with a couple very brief comments, noted interviews, and added tag quotes or subheds under long articles, where the title didn't explain enough.
Still awful sore, but this was probably the first day in ten where I've been able to sit at the computer for more than an hour without really paying for it. Managed to listen to some music along the way, so Music Week tomorrow won't be a total wash.
Some scattered links this week:
Spencer Ackerman/Adam Rawnsley: $800 million in taxpayer money went to private prisons where migrants work for pennies.
Andrew J Bacevich:
The war in Afghanistan isn't a 'stalemate.' The US has lost.
Rebuking Trump's foreign policy, Secretary of Defense James Mattis resigns: interviewed by Amy Goodman. Program also quotes Phyllis Bennis. For her transcript, see The bombings will continue: US military role in Syria won't end.
Dean Baker: Warren-Schakowsky Bill is a huge step toward bringing drug costs down.
Peter Baker/Maggie Haberman: For Trump, 'a war every day,' waged increasingly alone: "At the midpoint of his term, the president has grown more sure of his own judgment and more isolated from anyone else's than at any point since he took office."
Doug Bandow: Why Trump is right to withdraw troops.
Zack Beauchamp: The 9 thinkers who made sense of 2018's chaos: 1 and 2) Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt on the big picture of the Trump presidency [authors of How Democracies Die]; Kimberlé Crenshaw on the battle over "identity politics" and "intersectionality" [author of On Intersectionality]; 4) Kate Manne on the Brett Kavanaugh fight [author of Down Girl]; 5 to 7) John Sides, Michael Tesler, and Lynn Vavreck on the midterm elections [authors of Identity Crisis]; 8) Carol Anderson on the war on voting rights [author of One Person, No Vote]; 9) Zeynap Tufekci on the baleful influence of social media [author of Twitter and Tear Gas]. I haven't read any of these, and am rather skeptical of most of them.
Peter Beinart: What the Yemen vote reveals about the Democratic Party.
Julia Belluz: A new Trump rule could take food stamps away from 755,000 people.
Christina Cauterucci: Claire McCaskill's bitter farewell.
Juan Cole:
Steve Eder: Did a Queens podiatrist help Donald Trump avoid Vietnam?
Conor Friedersdorf:
Susan B Glasser: How Trump made war on Angela Merkel and Europe.
Justin Glawe: Immigrant deaths in private prisons explode under Trump.
Tara Golshan: Trump's approval rating drops to Charlottesville levels during shutdown.
Sarah Greenberger: I worked in the Interior Department. Watching Zinke's tenure was heartbreaking.
Sean Illing:
"The fish rots from the head": a historian on the unique corruption of Trump's White House: interview with Robert Dallek, author of Franklin Roosevelt: A Political Life, from 2017.
Team of sycophants: a presidential historian on Trump's White House: another interview with Robert Dallek, from March 2018.
Intellectuals have said democracy is failing for a century. They were wrong. Reviews a debate by Walter Lippmann and John Dewey.
Umair Irfan:
Dahr Jamail: Ten ways 2018 brought us closer to climate apocalypse.
Patrick Radden Keefe: How Mark Burnett resurrected Donald Trump as an icon of American success.
Jen Kirby:
Michael Klare: The Coming of Hyperwar.
Paul Krugman:
Jill Lepore: What 2018 looked like fifty years ago.
Eric Levitz: Eric Levitz: Trump: Give me a wall or I'll engineer a recession.
Dara Lind: Slats, fences, and wall, explained: what exactly the shutdown fight is about.
Adam Liptak: Roberts, leader of Supreme Court's conservative majority, fights perception that it is partisan. On the other hand: Nelson W Cunningham: A holiday mystery: Why did John Roberts intervene in the Mueller probe?
Eric Lipton/Steve Eder/John Branch: 'This is our reality now.' On Trump and the environment: Dismissing science; Easing a 'war on coal'; Sidestepping protections; Profiting, at a cost
German Lopez:
Bill McKibben: At last, divestment is hitting the fossil fuel industry where it hurts.
John Nichols: The Trouble With Patrick Shanahan.
Caitlin Oprysko: Trump sounds 'more like a mob boss than president' with Cohen attacks.
Martin Pengelly:
Matt Peterson: The making of a trade warrior: on Robert Lighthizer. Related: Annie Lowrey: The 'madman' behind Trump's trade theory: on Peter Navarro.
Rob Picheta: Journalists faced 'unprecedented' hostility this year, report says. Related: United States added to list of most dangerous countries for journalists for first time.
Gareth Porter: Trump scores, breaks generals' 50-year war record.
Andrew Prokop:
Linda Qiu:
Sudarsan Raghavan: An unnatural disaster: "Yemen's hunger crisis is born of deliberate policies, pursued primarily by a Saudi-led coalition backed by the United States."
Frank Rich: GOP leaders won't tolerate Trump's chaos for much longer. Who's he kidding? The only other person who still harbors such fantasies is: Thomas L Friedman: Time for GOP to threaten to fire Trump.
David Roberts:
Clean energy technologies threaten to overwhelm the grid. Here's how it can adapt.
9 questions about climate change you were too embarrassed to ask. Note "Further reading" links.
Climate change policy can be overwhelming. Here's a guide to the policies that work. Interview with Hal Harvey, author of Designing Climate Solutions: A Policy Guide for Low-Carbon Energy.
Energy transitions are usually slow. Why the clean energy transition might be faster.
Amanda Sakuma:
John Kelly's exit interview lifts the curtain on the chaos within the Trump White House.
Saudi Arabia is reportedly outsourcing its war in Yemen to child soldiers.
Trump is using the deaths of two migrant children to push for his border wall.
Trump threatens to shut down the border for the third time in three months.
Dylan Scott:
Scott Shane/Sheera Frenkel: Russian 2016 influence operation targeted African-Americans on social media.
Richard Silverstein: Netanyahu government falls.
Danny Sjursen: Ringing in a new year of war.
Emily Stewart: What the Republican tax bill did -- and didn't -- do, one year later: "The GOP tax cuts didn't pay for themselves. They did, however, deliver a lot of stock buybacks."
Andrew Sullivan: The establishment will never say no to a war.
Nick Tabor: The Trump Administration's war on wildlife should be a scandal.
Hiroko Tabuchi: The oil industry's covert campaign to rewrite American car emissions rules.
Matt Taibbi:
We know how Trump's war game ends: "Nothing unites our political class like the threat of ending our never-ending war."
The Malaysia scandal is starting to look dire for Goldman Sachs: "Malaysian authorities filed criminal charges against Goldman, seeking a stunning $7.5 billion in reparations."
Alexia Underwood: Trump's secret trip to Iraq didn't quite go as planned.
Siva Vaidhyanathan: Facebook workers are the only ones who can hold Facebook accountable.
Peter Wade: John Kelly confirms he was lying all along: The White House is in chaos.
Philip Weiss: Sheldon Adelson was a giant loser in midterms -- and Trump is letting him know it.
Matthew Yglesias:
Joe Biden is leading the 2020 polls. Here's what he thinks about policy.
Tucker Carlson isn't speaking forbidden truths about immigration -- he's just wrong.
Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders are both way more popular than Trump.
Trump's perhaps correct critique of the Federal Reserve, explained.
Paul Ryan's farewell address contained a blaze of nonsense about poverty.
I'm starting to think Mexico isn't going to pay for the wall.
Beto O'Rourke's voting record is more conservative than the average Democrat's.
The shutdown is intractable because Trump's wall is ridiculous and Republicans know it.
Li Zhou: Trump as gotten 66 judges confirmed this year. In his second year, Obama had gotten 49.
Two pieces on the late Amos Oz: Haidar Eid: Amos Oz was no dove; and Marc H Ellis: Amos Oz and the end of liberal Zionism.