#^d 2019-12-01 #^h Weekend Roundup
Didn't do a Weekend Roundup last week, but I had a couple of links cached away, seed for today. Didn't much want to do one this week, either, but here goes.
First, a few links on the Democratic presidential debate (not many, as I started looking late, or maybe there wasn't much to find?):
Aaron Bycoffe, et al. (538): Who won the fifth Democratic debate?
Shane Goldmacher, et al. (New York Times): 5 takeaways from the November Democratic debate.
Dylan Matthews, et al. (Vox): 4 winners and 3 losers from the November Democratic debate: Winners: Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Stacey Abrams. Losers: Joe Biden, asylum seekers, health care.
Trent Spiner: New Hampshire voters to Steyer: Make it stop! Advertising blitzes, what's a billionaire to do?
In "this week in senseless violence," note that a couple people were stabbed in London in what's being taken as a "major terrorist incident" (What we know about the London Bridge stabbings), 11 were shot in New Orleans (New Orleans shooting: What we know), and A Mexican cartel gun battle near the Texas border leaves 21 dead).
Other scattered links for the last two weeks:
Zeeshan Aleem: Bolivia's coup is still happening. More on Bolivia:
Marjorie Cohn: US is again complicit in an illegal coup, this time in Bolivia.
Vijay Prashad: After Evo, the lithium question looms large in Bolivia.
Martin Belam: Republican committee bought Trump Jr book Triggered in bulk: "Reports claim title hit No 1 in bestseller list thanks in part to $94,800 advance purchase." More on this:
Elena Sheppard: Donald Trump Jr.'s New York Times bestseller 'Triggered' sparks literary list controversy. Literary?
Carl Boggs: The grand illusion: On climate change, referring to David Wallace-Wells: The Uninhabitable World.
Jonathan Chait:
Rudy's scheme to line his pockets in Ukraine keeps getting shadier.
Report: Trump business more fraudulent than previously known.
Devin Nunes sues over another news story, won't even deny it's true.
Trump's retribution against the Washington Post owner is his gravest abuse of power. You mean Trump's lobbying against the richest guy in the world?
Zak Cheney-Rice: In the 2010s, white America was finally shows itself: Interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates on "Obama's decade," reparations, and Kaepernick.
Nicholas JS Davies: Iraqis rise up against 16 years of 'Made in the USA', corruption. Related:
Patrick Cockburn: The resignation of the Iraqi Prime Minister may not halt the protests.
Gabriel Debenedetti: Bill de Blasio's case against Michael Bloomberg 2020.
Ross Douthat: The case for Bernie: Given his track record, one suspects he's merely trolling. Still, he makes some sound points about Bernie's appeal to diverse groups of Democrats, and shows a certain shrewdness in his claim that "he's the liberal most likely to spend all his time trying to tax the rich and leave cultural conservatives alone." Douthat may figure that the rich can take care of themselves, and can even afford to lose a little.
Masha Gessen:
Conan, the gender-fluid hero dog: "Like most people, Donald Trump thinks that all dogs -- especially big dogs that look ferocious enough to threaten journalists -- are male."
The immigrant witnesses of the impeachment hearings: "Fiona Hill, Alexander Vindman, and Marie Yovanovitch showed that no one takes the promise of this country as seriously as immigrants do."
Fred M Hechinger: Class war over tuition: Mike Konczal recommended this piece, written in 1974, as "one of the smartest and most prescient things I've read about current higher education."
Adam Hochschild: When America tried to deport its radicals: "A hundred years ago, the Palmer Raids imperilled thousands of immigrants. Then a wily official got in the way." Louis F. Post.
John Hudson: Trump official who suggested dropping nuclear bombs on Afghanistan now responsible for arms control issues.
Umair Irfan: UN: The world has backed itself into a treacherous corner on climate change.
Ed Kilgore:
Colbert I King: It's a good bet Trump pardons his felon allies. Here's when that's most likely.
Markos Kounalakis: King Trump: "The impeachment inquiry is testing us: Do we live in a nation of laws or a nation of men?" Funny thing, I was just thinking of contrasts between Trump and Washington, and it occurred to me that we've gone full circle from the revolutionary who overthrew George III to his the King's closest kin in American history.
Paul Krugman:
Trump and his corrupt old party: "For Republicans, there is no bottom."
Doing the health care two-step: "Medium-size reform creates the conditions for bigger things." He's been saying this all along, and the record is mixed. It's probably true that the modest success of Medicaid expansion helped Democrats in Kentucky and Louisiana, but wouldn't more substantial reforms have fared even better?
Trump and his party of pollution: "Environmental destruction may be their biggest legacy."
Bursting the billionaire bubble: "No, America isn't waiting for a tycoon savior."
Alexandra S Levine/Nancy Scola/Steven Overly/Christiano Lima: Why the fight against disinformation, sham accounts and trolls won't be any easier in 2020.
Eric Levitz:
Dahlia Lithwick: America's descent into legal nihilism: "The president would like to be president forever. And he's bending the law to his will do to so."
Jane Mayer: The inside story of Christopher Steele's Trump dossier. Review of Glenn Simpson/Peter Fritsch: Crime in Progress: Inside the Steele Dossier and the Fusion GPS Investigation of Donald Trump.
Ian Millhiser: Brett Kavanaugh's latest opinion should terrify Democrats.
Pankaj Mishra: Liberalism according to The Economist. Reviews Alexander Zevin: Liberalism at Large: The World According to the Economist.
Ella Nilsen: House Democrats have passed nearly 400 bills. Trump and Republicans are ignoring them.
Anna North: New Trump administration rules on sexual assault could keep survivors silent.
Charles P Pierce: Democrats must get a handle on what 'unity' means when taking on a renegade presidency*: "The tale of Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and this anonymously sourced tale of Barack Obama, are instructive."
Wendell Potter: Why Trump's health care cost transparency drive doesn't actually help anyone. Author is a former VP at Cigna, wrote a book (Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans), now runs an outfit called Business for Medicare for All.
Andrew Prokop:
Robert Redford: President Trump's dictator-like administration is attacking the values America holds dear.
Nathan Robinson: Progressives, trust your gut: Elizabeth Warren is not one of us. I'll note this, but add that nothing here particularly bothers me, except perhaps his "Sanders is far from a perfect candidate" aside. Warren took a different path than most leftists did, but she's wound up far more committed to our basic principles than is the norm for Democrats, let alone for Americans overall. No president is going to be able to do much more than Congress and the courts allow, so I'd be happy with anyone who would lead in the right direction, and not make many blunders along the way. Even some of the "moderates" might qualify (although Obama's mix didn't amount to much). I'll also note that while Warren isn't as grounded a leftist as Sanders, she may have a political advantage as more rooted in America's progressive/liberal tradition. Granted, that tradition's track record is profoundly flawed, but it's still what many Americans aspire to. (Jill Lepore has tried most recently to promote that viewpoint. Robinson probably hates her too.)
Philip Rucker: Trump's photo op play: Facing impeachment, the president strives to look hard at work. Advising Trump "to focus on governing and travel frequently" is none other than former Clinton strategist Mark Penn.
Darren Samuelsohn: Justice's election-year conundrum: How to probe team Trump.
Michael S Schmidt/Julian E Barnes/Maggie Haberman: Trump knew of whistleblower complaint when he released aid to Ukraine.
Adam Serwer: The war-crimes president: "When violence is directed at those Trump's supporters hate and fear, they see such excesses not as crimes but as virtues."
Katie Shepherd: An ad smeared a Kansas Democrat for sexual harassment. The main charge actually described a Republican. By the way Brandon Whipple has since won his election to become Mayor of Wichita. It's nominally a non-partisan election, but Republicans worked hard to make it partisan.
David K Shipler: The mythology of American virtue: "Impeachment supporters don't need to act like we're a perfect country to make the case against Trump."
Emily Stewart:
Matt Stieb: House conspiracist Devin Nunes may be subject to ethics investigation for reported Ukraine meddling.
Charlie Sykes: Devin Nunes' impeachment defense of Trump -- and possible Ukraine collusion -- redefines partisan hackery. Sure, but didn't Nunes set the previous standard during the Benghazi! hearings?
Matt Taibbi: Michael Bloomberg, presidential candidate, just killed the Bloomberg News Agency.
For Mike Bloomberg to own a media network for as long as he has without understanding or caring about this is astonishing. He's been a presidential candidate for just a few days now, and he's already done tremendous damage by telling voters he thinks it's OK to buy the free press. And this is the guy who's going to rescue democracy?
Sabrina Tavernise/Aidan Gardiner: 'No one believes anything': Voters worn out by a fog of political news.
Simon Tisdall: Benjamin Netanyahu's toxic legacy will haunt Israel long after he goes.
Erick Trickey: San Francisco's quest to make landfills obsolete.
Alex Ward:
"A terrible idea": Experts blast Trump's plan to label Mexican drug cartels "terrorists": "It would increase fears of a US military intervention in Mexico."
The controversy over Navy Secretary Richard Spencer's ouster, explained. Also see:
Danny Sjursen: America will never live down Trump's war crime pardons.
Sondland's testimony shows Mike Pompeo was far more central on Ukraine than we knew.
Matthew Yglesias: