Sunday, May 21, 2017
Wednesday, May 17, 2017
TRUMPTELL 3.0
TOP OF THE NEWS:
- Release the Notes (Weekly Standard) "There were six U.S. officials in the meeting: Trump, McMaster, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Deputy National Security Adviser Dina Powell, and two others. The junior-most person at the meeting on the U.S. side is charged with taking copious notes... The White House believes that these notes—distributed to a small list of national security and intelligence officials after the meeting, perhaps two dozen—led to the Washington Post story. In their view, the notes do not support the main claims of the reporting and the conclusions in the Post piece require inference and speculation. Trump supporters don't believe the news reports. Reporters and Trump skeptics don't believe Trump administration denials. Who's right? There's one way to find out—or to get us closer to that truth: Release the notes of the meeting."
- The Car Wreck Presidency (Weekly Standard) "...if the reporting is accurate, it is clear that the intelligence was obviously sensitive. The fact that, apparently, Trump's advisers then went so far as to scrub the internal minutes of the discussion clean of what he passed to the Russians is only further evidence that they knew he had probably gone too far."
- Trump’s Defense of His Russia Leak Is Not Reassuring (National Review) "...disclosure should be the result of a deliberative process, not a momentary impulse. The Resurgent’s Erick Erickson wrote that he knows one of the sources for the media’s stories and that the reality is even worse than the reports. Hillary Clinton lost the presidency in part because her own mishandling of classified information meant that Russia could have had access to American secrets. According to this report, Trump gave Russia dangerous secrets, impulsively, perhaps as part of an effort to impress his guests. The American people should be troubled by what we know. But until we know all the facts, we don’t yet know how troubled we should be."
- Intelligence Lapses and Double Standards (National Review) "...the Post maintains that it was persuaded by 'officials' (not further identified) to withhold from its report the name of the city, lest 'important intelligence capabilities' be jeopardized. If knowledgeable government officials did plead with the Post to refrain from reporting these details, that would be cause for concern that the president erred, perhaps significantly. I’m not suggesting that Trump be cut slack. This seems like it could be a serious error, and one that was easily avoidable. But after a couple of years of hearing the Iran deal and Mrs. Clinton’s homebrew server explained away, I’m just wondering when the media suddenly got so interested again in harmful White House dealings with hostile powers and the proper safeguarding of classified information."
- Conservative media coverage of Trump’s classified disclosure will make your head spin (WaPo) "For several minutes during Tuesday's telecast, “Fox & Friends” displayed alternating graphics on the lower third of the screen."
"Would you like to believe that the story is false? We have a graphic for that!"
"Would you prefer to acknowledge that the report is true but believe it is no big deal because the president can do what he wants? We have a graphic for that, too!"
"Never mind the contradiction."
And there is also this...
- Release the Notes (Weekly Standard) "There were six U.S. officials in the meeting: Trump, McMaster, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Deputy National Security Adviser Dina Powell, and two others. The junior-most person at the meeting on the U.S. side is charged with taking copious notes... The White House believes that these notes—distributed to a small list of national security and intelligence officials after the meeting, perhaps two dozen—led to the Washington Post story. In their view, the notes do not support the main claims of the reporting and the conclusions in the Post piece require inference and speculation. Trump supporters don't believe the news reports. Reporters and Trump skeptics don't believe Trump administration denials. Who's right? There's one way to find out—or to get us closer to that truth: Release the notes of the meeting."
- The Car Wreck Presidency (Weekly Standard) "...if the reporting is accurate, it is clear that the intelligence was obviously sensitive. The fact that, apparently, Trump's advisers then went so far as to scrub the internal minutes of the discussion clean of what he passed to the Russians is only further evidence that they knew he had probably gone too far."
- Trump’s Defense of His Russia Leak Is Not Reassuring (National Review) "...disclosure should be the result of a deliberative process, not a momentary impulse. The Resurgent’s Erick Erickson wrote that he knows one of the sources for the media’s stories and that the reality is even worse than the reports. Hillary Clinton lost the presidency in part because her own mishandling of classified information meant that Russia could have had access to American secrets. According to this report, Trump gave Russia dangerous secrets, impulsively, perhaps as part of an effort to impress his guests. The American people should be troubled by what we know. But until we know all the facts, we don’t yet know how troubled we should be."
- Intelligence Lapses and Double Standards (National Review) "...the Post maintains that it was persuaded by 'officials' (not further identified) to withhold from its report the name of the city, lest 'important intelligence capabilities' be jeopardized. If knowledgeable government officials did plead with the Post to refrain from reporting these details, that would be cause for concern that the president erred, perhaps significantly. I’m not suggesting that Trump be cut slack. This seems like it could be a serious error, and one that was easily avoidable. But after a couple of years of hearing the Iran deal and Mrs. Clinton’s homebrew server explained away, I’m just wondering when the media suddenly got so interested again in harmful White House dealings with hostile powers and the proper safeguarding of classified information."
- Conservative media coverage of Trump’s classified disclosure will make your head spin (WaPo) "For several minutes during Tuesday's telecast, “Fox & Friends” displayed alternating graphics on the lower third of the screen."
"Would you like to believe that the story is false? We have a graphic for that!"
And there is also this...
- Comey Memo Says Trump Asked Him to End Flynn Investigation (NYT) "'I hope you can let this go,' the president told Mr. Comey, according to the memo. Mr. Comey wrote the memo detailing his conversation with the president immediately after the meeting...according to two people who read the memo. The memo was part of a paper trail Mr. Comey created documenting what he perceived as the president’s improper efforts to influence an ongoing investigation. An F.B.I. agent’s contemporaneous notes are widely held up in court as credible evidence of conversations. The New York Times has not viewed a copy of the memo...but one of Mr. Comey’s associates read parts of the memo to a Times reporter."
TODAY'S SONG:
- Frustrated Incorporated (Soul Asylum)
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NEWS:
- On Drugs, It's Back to War (National Review) "The problem with the war on drugs is the war on drugs. What is instead necessary is an approach that takes into account the complexity of the problem, one that makes fine distinctions between recreational users, addicts, low-level traffickers and desultory distributors, professional criminals and crime syndicates, and international drug cartels. As our friends at Right on Crime sometimes put it, it is possible to be tough and smart at the same time. ...Trump administration’s get-tough posture is unlikely to produce the desired result."
BOTTOM OF THE NEWS:
- Why Swearing Makes You Stronger (New Yorker) "Both studies were consistent with Stephens’s theory that swearing eases pain by triggering aggressive emotions, much in the way that the mere act of smiling can make a person feel happier. The aggression, in turn, triggers a fight-or-flight stress response, releasing adrenaline, which is known to increase physical performance."
- On Drugs, It's Back to War (National Review) "The problem with the war on drugs is the war on drugs. What is instead necessary is an approach that takes into account the complexity of the problem, one that makes fine distinctions between recreational users, addicts, low-level traffickers and desultory distributors, professional criminals and crime syndicates, and international drug cartels. As our friends at Right on Crime sometimes put it, it is possible to be tough and smart at the same time. ...Trump administration’s get-tough posture is unlikely to produce the desired result."
BOTTOM OF THE NEWS:
- Why Swearing Makes You Stronger (New Yorker) "Both studies were consistent with Stephens’s theory that swearing eases pain by triggering aggressive emotions, much in the way that the mere act of smiling can make a person feel happier. The aggression, in turn, triggers a fight-or-flight stress response, releasing adrenaline, which is known to increase physical performance."
- Frustrated Incorporated (Soul Asylum)
Tuesday, May 16, 2017
DATA AND ELECTIONS
TOP OF THE NEWS:
- Cambridge Analytica Explained: Data and Elections – Privacy International – Medium (Medium) "What does Cambridge Analytica actually do? ...companies like Cambridge Analytica do two things: profile individuals, and use these profiles to personalize political messaging. What some reporting on Cambridge Analytica fails to mention is that profiling itself is a widespread practice. This is terrifying! So everything can be predicted? Well, yes, but also not quite. Now here’s where it gets tricky: this derived information is often uncannily accurate (which makes profiling a privacy nightmare) but by virtue of being predictive, predictions also sometimes get it wrong. So profiling is widespread. But did Cambridge Analytica influence the Brexit vote and the U.S. election? The idea that a single company influenced an entire election is also difficult to maintain because every single candidate used some form of profiling and micro-targeting to persuade voters... So Cambridge Analytica is a snake oil vendor and I shouldn’t be worried? ...you should definitely be worried!
BUSINESS:
- Domino's delivers big by embracing technology (LA Times) "The Ann Arbor, Mich., company’s revenue and profit have surged. Its same-store sales — or sales from stores open at least one year, a key measure of retail performance — have risen in the U.S. market for 24 consecutive quarters, a feat that analyst Brian Bittner of Oppenheimer & Co. recently called 'incredible.'"
NEWS:
- G.O.P. Senators Pull Away From Trump, Alarmed at His Volatility (NYT) "As they pursue their own agenda, Republican senators are drafting a health care bill with little White House input, seeking to avoid the public relations pitfalls that befell the House as it passed its own deeply unpopular version. Republicans are also pushing back on the president’s impending budget request — including, notably, a provision that would nearly eliminate funding for the national drug control office amid an opioid epidemic. And many high-ranking Republicans have said they will not support any move by Mr. Trump to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement."
- Trump’s Madness Invites Mutiny (NYT) "He is insecure, paranoid and brittle, jostling between egomania and narcissism, intoxicated with a power beyond his meager comprehension and indulging in it beyond the point of abuse."
- Small Countries’ New Weapon Against Goliaths: Hacking (NYT) "State-sponsored hacking is 'the new way to do espionage in the 21st century because it’s much easier to resource compared to a human operation,' said Tim Wellsmore, FireEye’s Asia director of threat intelligence. 'This is a low-cost, high-return model.'"
- The Election Is Over, but Trump Can’t Seem to Get Past It (NYT) "At the root of Mr. Trump’s unpredictable presidency, according to people close to him, is a deep frustration about attacks on his legitimacy, and a worry that Washington does not see him as he sees himself. Mr. Trump burns with frustration over not getting enough credit for winning the nation’s highest office after having never so much as run for City Council or town alderman. He ran when pundits predicted he would not, stayed in when they were certain he would drop out, never lost his core supporters and, amid a dysfunctional campaign that was known for self-inflicted wounds, propelled himself to victory over the vastly more experienced Clinton machine. He expected to be celebrated for it, and that has not happened."
- What Happens When The Pro-Trump Media Get Actual Scoops? (BuzzFeed) "In recent weeks...the pro-Trump media has frequently seized control of the political news cycle via an unexpected tactic: real, and at times, well-sourced reporting."
- How Vladimir Putin mastered the art of 'online Judo' – and why the west should be worried (Wired) "When protests began in Moscow in December 2011 over what were seen as flawed elections, the Kremlin was spooked. The internet had to be brought to heel. The Kremlin exerted control in a number of ways."
- When the Wife of a Soldier Hears a Knock at the Door (NYT) "Mrs. De Alencar was upstairs. Her daughter Tatiyana, 13, shouted that two uniformed men were at the door, 'like in the movies, when they knock on the door when something bad has happened.'"
- The Comey Debacle (National Review) "'What does Donald Trump’s manufactured, self-inflicted, and pathological need for drama get us?' ...the correct answer, in policy terms, is . . . nothing. Actually, less than nothing because all this drama makes getting things done harder. The rush to defend the myth of Trump is causing conservatives to abandon their principles, standards, and credibility at a breathtaking pace. Everyone seems to have overlooked the fact that we have a Republican president defending a school of economics that conservatives have been trying to beat back for more than a century (free-market economists were anti-Keynesian before Keynes was born)."
TRUMPTELL:
- Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian foreign minister and ambassador (WaPo) "'This is code-word information,' said a U.S. official familiar with the matter, using terminology that refers to one of the highest classification levels used by American spy agencies. Trump 'revealed more information to the Russian ambassador than we have shared with our own allies.' For most anyone in government discussing such matters with an adversary would be illegal. Senior White House officials appeared to recognize quickly that Trump had overstepped and moved to contain the potential fallout. As president, Trump has broad authority to declassify government secrets, making it unlikely that his disclosures broke the law."
BOTTOM OF THE NEWS:
- Trump thinks that exercising too much uses up the body’s ‘finite’ energy (WaPo) "Trump mostly gave up athletics after college because he 'believed the human body was like a battery, with a finite amount of energy, which exercise only depleted.'"
TODAY'S SONG:
BUSINESS:
- Domino's delivers big by embracing technology (LA Times) "The Ann Arbor, Mich., company’s revenue and profit have surged. Its same-store sales — or sales from stores open at least one year, a key measure of retail performance — have risen in the U.S. market for 24 consecutive quarters, a feat that analyst Brian Bittner of Oppenheimer & Co. recently called 'incredible.'"
NEWS:
- G.O.P. Senators Pull Away From Trump, Alarmed at His Volatility (NYT) "As they pursue their own agenda, Republican senators are drafting a health care bill with little White House input, seeking to avoid the public relations pitfalls that befell the House as it passed its own deeply unpopular version. Republicans are also pushing back on the president’s impending budget request — including, notably, a provision that would nearly eliminate funding for the national drug control office amid an opioid epidemic. And many high-ranking Republicans have said they will not support any move by Mr. Trump to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement."
- Trump’s Madness Invites Mutiny (NYT) "He is insecure, paranoid and brittle, jostling between egomania and narcissism, intoxicated with a power beyond his meager comprehension and indulging in it beyond the point of abuse."
- Small Countries’ New Weapon Against Goliaths: Hacking (NYT) "State-sponsored hacking is 'the new way to do espionage in the 21st century because it’s much easier to resource compared to a human operation,' said Tim Wellsmore, FireEye’s Asia director of threat intelligence. 'This is a low-cost, high-return model.'"
- The Election Is Over, but Trump Can’t Seem to Get Past It (NYT) "At the root of Mr. Trump’s unpredictable presidency, according to people close to him, is a deep frustration about attacks on his legitimacy, and a worry that Washington does not see him as he sees himself. Mr. Trump burns with frustration over not getting enough credit for winning the nation’s highest office after having never so much as run for City Council or town alderman. He ran when pundits predicted he would not, stayed in when they were certain he would drop out, never lost his core supporters and, amid a dysfunctional campaign that was known for self-inflicted wounds, propelled himself to victory over the vastly more experienced Clinton machine. He expected to be celebrated for it, and that has not happened."
- What Happens When The Pro-Trump Media Get Actual Scoops? (BuzzFeed) "In recent weeks...the pro-Trump media has frequently seized control of the political news cycle via an unexpected tactic: real, and at times, well-sourced reporting."
- How Vladimir Putin mastered the art of 'online Judo' – and why the west should be worried (Wired) "When protests began in Moscow in December 2011 over what were seen as flawed elections, the Kremlin was spooked. The internet had to be brought to heel. The Kremlin exerted control in a number of ways."
- When the Wife of a Soldier Hears a Knock at the Door (NYT) "Mrs. De Alencar was upstairs. Her daughter Tatiyana, 13, shouted that two uniformed men were at the door, 'like in the movies, when they knock on the door when something bad has happened.'"
- The Comey Debacle (National Review) "'What does Donald Trump’s manufactured, self-inflicted, and pathological need for drama get us?' ...the correct answer, in policy terms, is . . . nothing. Actually, less than nothing because all this drama makes getting things done harder. The rush to defend the myth of Trump is causing conservatives to abandon their principles, standards, and credibility at a breathtaking pace. Everyone seems to have overlooked the fact that we have a Republican president defending a school of economics that conservatives have been trying to beat back for more than a century (free-market economists were anti-Keynesian before Keynes was born)."
TRUMPTELL:
- Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian foreign minister and ambassador (WaPo) "'This is code-word information,' said a U.S. official familiar with the matter, using terminology that refers to one of the highest classification levels used by American spy agencies. Trump 'revealed more information to the Russian ambassador than we have shared with our own allies.' For most anyone in government discussing such matters with an adversary would be illegal. Senior White House officials appeared to recognize quickly that Trump had overstepped and moved to contain the potential fallout. As president, Trump has broad authority to declassify government secrets, making it unlikely that his disclosures broke the law."
BOTTOM OF THE NEWS:
- Trump thinks that exercising too much uses up the body’s ‘finite’ energy (WaPo) "Trump mostly gave up athletics after college because he 'believed the human body was like a battery, with a finite amount of energy, which exercise only depleted.'"
TODAY'S SONG:
- Where The Streets Have No Name (U2)
Sign up for email distribution of the Day's Most Compelling News below or by visiting Top of the News
Sign up for email distribution of the Day's Most Compelling News below or by visiting Top of the News
Monday, May 15, 2017
TRUMPTELL 2.0
TOP OF THE NEWS:
Sign up for email distribution of the Day's Most Compelling News below or by visiting Top of the News
- What we know Trump did this week — and why it matters (WaPo) "President Trump fired the director of the FBI, in the fourth year of his 10-year term, because the president was upset that Mr. Comey was leading an FBI investigation of possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign in 2016. The investigation was gaining momentum as Mr. Trump struck. Mr. Trump initially misrepresented the reason for the firing and allowed other members of his administration, including Vice President Pence, to grossly misinform Congress and the public. By Thursday, in his interview with NBC’s Lester Holt, Mr. Trump was acknowledging that he decided to fire Mr. Comey before soliciting and receiving any recommendations and that the Clinton emails were not his motivation. 'When I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story.' In January, according to Mr. Trump, the president dined privately with Mr. Comey at Mr. Comey’s request and asked the FBI director to tell him whether he was under investigation. That would be troubling. In a more troubling — and, in our view, more plausible — version provided by Mr. Comey’s associates, the president initiated the dinner and used the occasion to demand the FBI director’s 'loyalty.' On Friday, as the contradictory versions of that dinner added to Mr. Trump’s political difficulties, he issued a menacing tweet — 'James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!'"
- The Trump-Russia Nexus (NYT) "There may be no Trump Tower in Moscow or St. Petersburg, but it is not for lack of trying. Mr. Trump and his family have sought to do business in Russia since at least the 1980s. In 2008, Donald Trump Jr. told a real estate conference, 'Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross section of a lot of our assets; say in Dubai, and certainly with our project in SoHo and anywhere in New York,' according to eTurboNews, a travel industry news site. The author James Dodson said that another son, Eric Trump, told him in 2013 that Russians have bankrolled Trump golf courses: 'Well, we don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.' Eric Trump denies saying that. Mr. Trump and his associates can cry themselves hoarse that there is neither smoke nor fire here. But all in all, the known facts suggest an unusually extensive network of relationships with a major foreign power."
- The Senate Starts to Look at Trump’s Businesses (New Yorker) "If the committee does begin to seriously consider the Trump Organization’s business practices and any connections those show to figures in Russia and other sensitive countries, it would suggest what prosecutors call a 'target rich' environment. Rather than focussing on a handful of recent arrivals to Trump’s inner circle—Mike Flynn and Carter Page, a Trump campaign adviser—it could open up his core circle of children and longtime associates. The same associate who told me that he doesn’t think Trump was likely involved in a long-term plan with Putin and Russia said he is certain that Trump has, many times, made very risky decisions in order to take advantage of a short-term opportunity. 'If he sees something shiny,' he said, 'he wants it.'"
- Trump must be impeached. Here’s why. (NYT) "Ample reasons existed to worry about this president, and to ponder the extraordinary remedy of impeachment, even before he fired FBI Director James B. Comey and shockingly admitted on national television that the action was provoked by the FBI’s intensifying investigation into his campaign’s ties with Russia."
BUSINESS/INVESTMENT:
- Silicon Valley is 'officially a retirement community for D.C. political vets' (LA Times) "Veterans of high-profile political campaigns and White House administrations such as LaBolt — who in years past would have turned their public-service resumes and connections into jobs as lobbyists on K Street, advisers at Fortune 500 firms or leaders of nonprofits — are increasingly heading west, attracted by the opportunities to put their political skills to use in the technology industry. It can lead to strange bedfellows: Democrats and Republicans who fought each other while working on opposing campaigns find themselves working on shared goals and trying to effect change outside the nation’s gridlocked capital. Beyond healthy six-figure salaries and better weather than Washington, D.C., the moves make sense — skills developed in politics are in critical demand in the Bay Area and Silicon Valley."
- How Homeownership Became the Engine of American Inequality (NYT) "There is a reason so many Americans choose to develop their net worth through homeownership: It is a proven wealth builder and savings compeller. The average homeowner boasts a net worth ($195,400) that is 36 times that of the average renter ($5,400). Almost a decade removed from the foreclosure crisis that began in 2008, the nation is facing one of the worst affordable-housing shortages in generations. When we think of entitlement programs, Social Security and Medicare immediately come to mind. But by any fair standard, the holy trinity of United States social policy should also include the mortgage-interest deduction... The owner-renter divide is as salient as any other in this nation, and this divide is a historical result of statecraft designed to protect and promote inequality. ...the New Deal...through the G.I. Bill of Rights...remains unmatched by any other single social policy in the scope and depth of its provisions... The G.I. Bill brought a rollout of veterans’ mortgages, padded with modest interest rates and down payments waived for loans up to 30 years. But both in its design and its application, the G.I. Bill excluded a large number of citizens. From 1934 to 1968, the official F.H.A. policy of redlining made homeownership virtually impossible in black communities. This legacy has been passed down to subsequent generations. "
ENTERTAINMENT:
- How Pixar Lost Its Way (Atlantic) "The painful verdict is all but indisputable: The golden era of Pixar is over. It was a 15-year run of unmatched commercial and creative excellence, beginning with Toy Story in 1995 and culminating with the extraordinary trifecta of wall-e in 2008, Up in 2009, and Toy Story 3 (yes, a sequel, but a great one) in 2010. Since then, other animation studios have made consistently better films."
HEALTH:
- Virtual-reality worlds filled with penguins and otters are a promising alternative to painkillers (Quartz) "Over the last few decades, U.S. doctors have tackled constant pain problems by prescribing ever-higher levels of opioid painkillers... These medications have turned out to be less effective for treating chronic pain than thought – and far more addictive. Efforts to curb opioid prescriptions and abuse are starting to work. Persuading patients to embrace this more diverse approach isn’t easy, however. People don’t want programs... 'They just want to take a pill.' ...researchers believe that the sense of immersion created by VR – feeling physically present in the virtual location – is crucial. 'It works because it tricks your senses into perceiving that the computer-generated environment is real...' There are several obstacles to its use becoming routine. One is a reluctance among many hospitals and clinics to adopt unfamiliar technology. Developing VR into a routine treatment is also going to require new models of funding."
NEWS:
- Intelligence Officials Warn of Continued Russia Cyberthreats (NYT) "On the same day that President Trump went on Twitter to renew his claim that the focus on Russian hacking was 'a Democrat EXCUSE for losing the election,' his two top intelligence officials told the Senate...that Russian cyberactivities were the foremost threat facing the United States and were likely to grow only more severe."
- The Effort to Undo Obama Regulations Is Ending with a Whimper (Weekly Standard) "The Trump administration and congressional Republicans have talked a big game when it comes to deregulation. The president has issued several strong executive orders aimed at rolling back the administrative state. But such a 'pen and phone' strategy is subject to unwinding by a future president. For its part, Congress has thus far failed to pass any form of comprehensive regulatory-reform legislation, despite having a menu of options from which to choose."
- Why the Trump White House Is So Leaky (National Review) "Beyond the normal messaging, there are several answers. Some reporters I’ve talked to note that few people in the Trump White House have much experience working in a White House, contributing to the shocking lack of internal discipline and clear lines of authority. Some reporters tell me it’s simply '[posterior]-covering.' Maintaining good relationships with the press is an insurance policy. It’s always useful to have friends in the media, particularly if an administration goes off the rails. All these explanations are probably true. But I think the problem ultimately goes back to the president himself. He thrives on drama, particularly drama he creates. He cares about, and monitors, media coverage like no president in American history. Trump likes to pit subordinates against each other, which encourages staffers to be free agents. This dynamic is exacerbated by his glandular zigzagging on policies and his failure to provide a consistent philosophical or policy agenda beyond 'Make the boss look good.' In short, he values loyalty above all else but offers few incentives for it."
- Ivanka Trump Has the President’s Ear. Here’s Her Agenda (NYT) "By inserting herself into a scalding set of gender dynamics, she is becoming a magnet for anger over dashed dreams of a female presidency and President Trump’s record of conduct toward women. Critics see her efforts as a brash feat of Trump promotion — an unsatisfying answer to the 2005 'Access Hollywood' recording that surfaced during the campaign and the seas of pink, cat-eared 'pussy hats' worn by protesters after the inauguration — by a woman of extraordinary privilege who has learned that feminism makes for potent branding. She has one skill unmatched by almost anyone else, family members and aides say: She can effectively convey criticism to a man who often refuses it from others, and can appeal to him to change his mind. But can she influence his actions as president? In her 35 years, she has left little traceable record of challenging or changing the man who raised her."
- How Houston has become the most diverse place in America (LA Times) "Yet demographic experts say the Houston metro area, home to the third-largest population of undocumented immigrants in the country...is a roadmap to what U.S. cities will look like in the coming decades as whites learn to live as minorities in the American heartland. In 1970, about 62% of Houston’s population was white. By 2010, that had shrunk to 25.6%. Over the same period, the Latino population grew from 10.6% to about 44%. Houston — with a black, Democratic mayor and a powerfully pro-immigrant population — has potentially become one of the battlefronts in Texas over the city’s 'don’t ask' ‘sanctuary policy...’ Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has led an aggressive charge to end such policies, and on Sunday signed a bill to punish so-called sanctuary cities. The sanctuary issue has roiled Texas...where the governor has blocked $1.5 million in funding over sanctuary policies. The story of how his city turned from a town of oil industry roughnecks and white blue-collar workers into a major political centrifuge for immigration reform, demographic analysts say, is nothing less than the story of the American city of the future."
- Stop Thinking James Comey Keeps All His Files in a Cardboard Box (Wired) "Today, every single official FBI document gets uploaded to a central government database. The FBI logs every time a document has been viewed, printed, or deleted, and agents conduct regular audits to verify that every document is in its rightful place. All email records are also stored on a government server (unless of course you set up a private server in your bathroom, which, well, you know). All of those documents are eventually subject to the Federal Records Act, which requires the preservation of government records."
POLITICS:
- The Democrats Strike Back: A New Tactic For Redrawing District Lines (Ozy) "State legislators and governors typically hold the power to redraw congressional and state legislative lines after each decennial census, and the politically charged results can resemble reptiles or works of abstract art. Ahead of the 2010 census, Republicans mounted an astoundingly successful campaign in dozens of states to snag total power to draw favorable lines. Using sophisticated software to slice up the electorate down to the block, map-drawers created districts to elect Republicans reasonably safely, while Democrats were packed into blue seats. Democrats did the reverse in states they controlled, such as Maryland and Illinois. In March a federal three-judge panel ruled that Republican-drawn state legislative districts in Wisconsin were so partisan that they violated the civil rights of Democrats."
- The Risks Of An Underfunded Census (NPR)
- When Will Republicans Stand Up to Trump? (NYT) "...the party sold its soul to the soulless charlatan who now occupies the Oval Office and makes a mockery of every one of the party’s principles. Republicans have turned away from this uncomfortable truth by telling themselves that Donald Trump is an imperfect but necessary vessel for their agenda. Like other conservatives, I care about tax cuts and military spending increases. But I care even more about the rule of law... In office less than four months, Mr. Trump has already undermined the rule of law in myriad small ways. But all of that is inconsequential compared with the flagrant assault on the rule of law represented by the firing of the F.B.I. director. While the president has the authority to fire the F.B.I. director, to do so under these circumstances and for these reasons is a gross violation of the trust citizens place in the president to ensure that the laws 'be faithfully executed.' If this is not a prima facie case of obstruction of justice — an impeachable offense — it’s hard to know what is. Are there even three principled Republicans left who will put their devotion to the Republic above their fealty to the Republican Party?"
READ THIS:
- American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson (Joseph J. Ellis) "For a man who insisted that life on the public stage was not what he had in mind, Thomas Jefferson certainly spent a great deal of time in the spotlight--and not only during his active political career."
SOCIALIZED MEDICINE:
- How One Startup Built Better Health Insurance With the Magic of Data (Wired) "Yes, technically Oscar is in the insurance business. But it’s really a technology company. Its CEO, Mario Schlosser, is a Stanford-trained data scientist who has built Oscar’s core business by extracting insights from the flood of existing health care data—insurance claims and doctor directories and electronic medical records. It was a move straight out of the Silicon Valley playbook: limit choice, and deliver a better user experience instead. Oscar’s network is not narrow. And it’s certainly not broad. It is, in the parlance of the Valley, 'optimized.'"
TECHNOLOGY:
- A Sensor That Could Soon Make Homes Scary-Smart (Wired) "One simple device that plugs into an electrical outlet and connects everything in the room. The tiny device...can capture all of the the environmental data needed to transform a wide variety of ordinary household objects into smart devices."
BOTTOM OF THE NEWS:
- The many reasons that people are having less sex (BBC) "Just as this problem is multi-dimensional, so the solutions must be multi-dimensional as well. Tackling the sexual decline will require dealing with the very causes of the mental health crisis facing Western worlds – a crisis that is underpinned by job and housing insecurity, fears of climate change, and the loss of communal and social spaces. Doing so will not just help people with their sex lives, but benefit health and wellbeing overall."
TODAY'S SONG:
- Private Eyes (Hall & Oats)
- The Trump-Russia Nexus (NYT) "There may be no Trump Tower in Moscow or St. Petersburg, but it is not for lack of trying. Mr. Trump and his family have sought to do business in Russia since at least the 1980s. In 2008, Donald Trump Jr. told a real estate conference, 'Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross section of a lot of our assets; say in Dubai, and certainly with our project in SoHo and anywhere in New York,' according to eTurboNews, a travel industry news site. The author James Dodson said that another son, Eric Trump, told him in 2013 that Russians have bankrolled Trump golf courses: 'Well, we don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.' Eric Trump denies saying that. Mr. Trump and his associates can cry themselves hoarse that there is neither smoke nor fire here. But all in all, the known facts suggest an unusually extensive network of relationships with a major foreign power."
- The Senate Starts to Look at Trump’s Businesses (New Yorker) "If the committee does begin to seriously consider the Trump Organization’s business practices and any connections those show to figures in Russia and other sensitive countries, it would suggest what prosecutors call a 'target rich' environment. Rather than focussing on a handful of recent arrivals to Trump’s inner circle—Mike Flynn and Carter Page, a Trump campaign adviser—it could open up his core circle of children and longtime associates. The same associate who told me that he doesn’t think Trump was likely involved in a long-term plan with Putin and Russia said he is certain that Trump has, many times, made very risky decisions in order to take advantage of a short-term opportunity. 'If he sees something shiny,' he said, 'he wants it.'"
- Trump must be impeached. Here’s why. (NYT) "Ample reasons existed to worry about this president, and to ponder the extraordinary remedy of impeachment, even before he fired FBI Director James B. Comey and shockingly admitted on national television that the action was provoked by the FBI’s intensifying investigation into his campaign’s ties with Russia."
BUSINESS/INVESTMENT:
- Silicon Valley is 'officially a retirement community for D.C. political vets' (LA Times) "Veterans of high-profile political campaigns and White House administrations such as LaBolt — who in years past would have turned their public-service resumes and connections into jobs as lobbyists on K Street, advisers at Fortune 500 firms or leaders of nonprofits — are increasingly heading west, attracted by the opportunities to put their political skills to use in the technology industry. It can lead to strange bedfellows: Democrats and Republicans who fought each other while working on opposing campaigns find themselves working on shared goals and trying to effect change outside the nation’s gridlocked capital. Beyond healthy six-figure salaries and better weather than Washington, D.C., the moves make sense — skills developed in politics are in critical demand in the Bay Area and Silicon Valley."
- How Homeownership Became the Engine of American Inequality (NYT) "There is a reason so many Americans choose to develop their net worth through homeownership: It is a proven wealth builder and savings compeller. The average homeowner boasts a net worth ($195,400) that is 36 times that of the average renter ($5,400). Almost a decade removed from the foreclosure crisis that began in 2008, the nation is facing one of the worst affordable-housing shortages in generations. When we think of entitlement programs, Social Security and Medicare immediately come to mind. But by any fair standard, the holy trinity of United States social policy should also include the mortgage-interest deduction... The owner-renter divide is as salient as any other in this nation, and this divide is a historical result of statecraft designed to protect and promote inequality. ...the New Deal...through the G.I. Bill of Rights...remains unmatched by any other single social policy in the scope and depth of its provisions... The G.I. Bill brought a rollout of veterans’ mortgages, padded with modest interest rates and down payments waived for loans up to 30 years. But both in its design and its application, the G.I. Bill excluded a large number of citizens. From 1934 to 1968, the official F.H.A. policy of redlining made homeownership virtually impossible in black communities. This legacy has been passed down to subsequent generations. "
ENTERTAINMENT:
- How Pixar Lost Its Way (Atlantic) "The painful verdict is all but indisputable: The golden era of Pixar is over. It was a 15-year run of unmatched commercial and creative excellence, beginning with Toy Story in 1995 and culminating with the extraordinary trifecta of wall-e in 2008, Up in 2009, and Toy Story 3 (yes, a sequel, but a great one) in 2010. Since then, other animation studios have made consistently better films."
HEALTH:
- Virtual-reality worlds filled with penguins and otters are a promising alternative to painkillers (Quartz) "Over the last few decades, U.S. doctors have tackled constant pain problems by prescribing ever-higher levels of opioid painkillers... These medications have turned out to be less effective for treating chronic pain than thought – and far more addictive. Efforts to curb opioid prescriptions and abuse are starting to work. Persuading patients to embrace this more diverse approach isn’t easy, however. People don’t want programs... 'They just want to take a pill.' ...researchers believe that the sense of immersion created by VR – feeling physically present in the virtual location – is crucial. 'It works because it tricks your senses into perceiving that the computer-generated environment is real...' There are several obstacles to its use becoming routine. One is a reluctance among many hospitals and clinics to adopt unfamiliar technology. Developing VR into a routine treatment is also going to require new models of funding."
NEWS:
- Intelligence Officials Warn of Continued Russia Cyberthreats (NYT) "On the same day that President Trump went on Twitter to renew his claim that the focus on Russian hacking was 'a Democrat EXCUSE for losing the election,' his two top intelligence officials told the Senate...that Russian cyberactivities were the foremost threat facing the United States and were likely to grow only more severe."
- The Effort to Undo Obama Regulations Is Ending with a Whimper (Weekly Standard) "The Trump administration and congressional Republicans have talked a big game when it comes to deregulation. The president has issued several strong executive orders aimed at rolling back the administrative state. But such a 'pen and phone' strategy is subject to unwinding by a future president. For its part, Congress has thus far failed to pass any form of comprehensive regulatory-reform legislation, despite having a menu of options from which to choose."
- Why the Trump White House Is So Leaky (National Review) "Beyond the normal messaging, there are several answers. Some reporters I’ve talked to note that few people in the Trump White House have much experience working in a White House, contributing to the shocking lack of internal discipline and clear lines of authority. Some reporters tell me it’s simply '[posterior]-covering.' Maintaining good relationships with the press is an insurance policy. It’s always useful to have friends in the media, particularly if an administration goes off the rails. All these explanations are probably true. But I think the problem ultimately goes back to the president himself. He thrives on drama, particularly drama he creates. He cares about, and monitors, media coverage like no president in American history. Trump likes to pit subordinates against each other, which encourages staffers to be free agents. This dynamic is exacerbated by his glandular zigzagging on policies and his failure to provide a consistent philosophical or policy agenda beyond 'Make the boss look good.' In short, he values loyalty above all else but offers few incentives for it."
- Ivanka Trump Has the President’s Ear. Here’s Her Agenda (NYT) "By inserting herself into a scalding set of gender dynamics, she is becoming a magnet for anger over dashed dreams of a female presidency and President Trump’s record of conduct toward women. Critics see her efforts as a brash feat of Trump promotion — an unsatisfying answer to the 2005 'Access Hollywood' recording that surfaced during the campaign and the seas of pink, cat-eared 'pussy hats' worn by protesters after the inauguration — by a woman of extraordinary privilege who has learned that feminism makes for potent branding. She has one skill unmatched by almost anyone else, family members and aides say: She can effectively convey criticism to a man who often refuses it from others, and can appeal to him to change his mind. But can she influence his actions as president? In her 35 years, she has left little traceable record of challenging or changing the man who raised her."
- How Houston has become the most diverse place in America (LA Times) "Yet demographic experts say the Houston metro area, home to the third-largest population of undocumented immigrants in the country...is a roadmap to what U.S. cities will look like in the coming decades as whites learn to live as minorities in the American heartland. In 1970, about 62% of Houston’s population was white. By 2010, that had shrunk to 25.6%. Over the same period, the Latino population grew from 10.6% to about 44%. Houston — with a black, Democratic mayor and a powerfully pro-immigrant population — has potentially become one of the battlefronts in Texas over the city’s 'don’t ask' ‘sanctuary policy...’ Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has led an aggressive charge to end such policies, and on Sunday signed a bill to punish so-called sanctuary cities. The sanctuary issue has roiled Texas...where the governor has blocked $1.5 million in funding over sanctuary policies. The story of how his city turned from a town of oil industry roughnecks and white blue-collar workers into a major political centrifuge for immigration reform, demographic analysts say, is nothing less than the story of the American city of the future."
- Stop Thinking James Comey Keeps All His Files in a Cardboard Box (Wired) "Today, every single official FBI document gets uploaded to a central government database. The FBI logs every time a document has been viewed, printed, or deleted, and agents conduct regular audits to verify that every document is in its rightful place. All email records are also stored on a government server (unless of course you set up a private server in your bathroom, which, well, you know). All of those documents are eventually subject to the Federal Records Act, which requires the preservation of government records."
POLITICS:
- The Democrats Strike Back: A New Tactic For Redrawing District Lines (Ozy) "State legislators and governors typically hold the power to redraw congressional and state legislative lines after each decennial census, and the politically charged results can resemble reptiles or works of abstract art. Ahead of the 2010 census, Republicans mounted an astoundingly successful campaign in dozens of states to snag total power to draw favorable lines. Using sophisticated software to slice up the electorate down to the block, map-drawers created districts to elect Republicans reasonably safely, while Democrats were packed into blue seats. Democrats did the reverse in states they controlled, such as Maryland and Illinois. In March a federal three-judge panel ruled that Republican-drawn state legislative districts in Wisconsin were so partisan that they violated the civil rights of Democrats."
- When Will Republicans Stand Up to Trump? (NYT) "...the party sold its soul to the soulless charlatan who now occupies the Oval Office and makes a mockery of every one of the party’s principles. Republicans have turned away from this uncomfortable truth by telling themselves that Donald Trump is an imperfect but necessary vessel for their agenda. Like other conservatives, I care about tax cuts and military spending increases. But I care even more about the rule of law... In office less than four months, Mr. Trump has already undermined the rule of law in myriad small ways. But all of that is inconsequential compared with the flagrant assault on the rule of law represented by the firing of the F.B.I. director. While the president has the authority to fire the F.B.I. director, to do so under these circumstances and for these reasons is a gross violation of the trust citizens place in the president to ensure that the laws 'be faithfully executed.' If this is not a prima facie case of obstruction of justice — an impeachable offense — it’s hard to know what is. Are there even three principled Republicans left who will put their devotion to the Republic above their fealty to the Republican Party?"
READ THIS:
- American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson (Joseph J. Ellis) "For a man who insisted that life on the public stage was not what he had in mind, Thomas Jefferson certainly spent a great deal of time in the spotlight--and not only during his active political career."
SOCIALIZED MEDICINE:
- How One Startup Built Better Health Insurance With the Magic of Data (Wired) "Yes, technically Oscar is in the insurance business. But it’s really a technology company. Its CEO, Mario Schlosser, is a Stanford-trained data scientist who has built Oscar’s core business by extracting insights from the flood of existing health care data—insurance claims and doctor directories and electronic medical records. It was a move straight out of the Silicon Valley playbook: limit choice, and deliver a better user experience instead. Oscar’s network is not narrow. And it’s certainly not broad. It is, in the parlance of the Valley, 'optimized.'"
TECHNOLOGY:
- A Sensor That Could Soon Make Homes Scary-Smart (Wired) "One simple device that plugs into an electrical outlet and connects everything in the room. The tiny device...can capture all of the the environmental data needed to transform a wide variety of ordinary household objects into smart devices."
BOTTOM OF THE NEWS:
- The many reasons that people are having less sex (BBC) "Just as this problem is multi-dimensional, so the solutions must be multi-dimensional as well. Tackling the sexual decline will require dealing with the very causes of the mental health crisis facing Western worlds – a crisis that is underpinned by job and housing insecurity, fears of climate change, and the loss of communal and social spaces. Doing so will not just help people with their sex lives, but benefit health and wellbeing overall."
TODAY'S SONG:
- Private Eyes (Hall & Oats)
Friday, May 12, 2017
WOMEN ON THE RISE
TOP OF THE NEWS:
- Teflon Amazon, Where Bezos Gets Rich and Bad News Never Sticks (Wired) "Amazon’s ability to avoid the villain label probably owes something to Bezos’s obsession with the company’s image. In his book on Amazon, The Everything Store, Brad Stone uncovered a memo from Bezos describing the qualities of 'cool' companies. Cool companies, according to Bezos, are polite, take risks, and take on bigger, less sympathetic companies."
- How Corn Took Over American Farms (Bloomberg) "Corn has always been a mainstay of U.S. agriculture, but its increasing profitability has driven up corn's share of total production, while grains such as wheat, oats and sorghum have steadily fallen, according to a Bloomberg analysis of a half-century of crop data. Corn will make up 68 percent of this year’s projected harvest of major U.S. grains and oilseeds... That’s up from 47 percent in 1968. The U.S. approved genetically modified (GMO) corn and soybeans for planting in 1995. That reduced those crops’ risk of disease and simplified their cultivation... Ethanol also came...in 2005 and 2007...providing a new outlet for an ever-more-productive crop."
HEALTH:
- Anti-Vaxxers Brought Their War to Minnesota—Then Came Measles (Wired) "And they [health professionals] totally expected it. Over the last decade, anti-vaxxers have fortified this corner of Minneapolis into a bastion for pseudo-science. It all began with higher-than-normal rates of severe autism in the Somali community. And when state and university researchers failed to understand why the disorder hit so hard here, families went looking for answers elsewhere: friends, and the all-knowing internet. In came the anti-vax partisans, whose success with these frightened parents has turned the neighborhood into a beachhead for what should be a totally preventable disease."
NEWS:
- As the White House defends Comey's firing, its allies join in deflecting calls for an independent Russia investigation (LA Times) "Trump’s frustration over the FBI investigation of contacts between his associates and Russian agents had flared dramatically last week, as Comey was set to make a routine appearance before a congressional panel. When Comey testified, Trump bristled at his remarks... White House officials said that Rosenstein had independently decided to undertake a review of Comey’s status... But Rosenstein’s concerns about Comey were very different than Trump’s. He thought Comey had mishandled the investigation into Clinton’s emails last year, largely in ways that were unfair to her."
- Democratic Hypocrisy and Hysteria Don’t Make Trump Right (National Review) "But — and this is the vitally important — the evidence is accumulating that Trump fired James Comey in the middle of an accelerating investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and then lied to the American people about the reason. No amount of Democratic hysteria can make that right. There is no amount of leftist hypocrisy that makes that acceptable."
- Palace whispers in the court of King Donald (Economist) "Less than four months into the reign of King Donald, his impetuous ways are making it more likely that his presidency will be a failure, with few large achievements to its name. That is not journalistic snark but a statement of fact, based on warnings from prominent Republicans and Democrats, notably in the Senate. Increasingly the mood among Senate Republicans is a mixture of incredulity and gloom, as each political success is followed by a momentum-killing outburst from the president. ...powerful folk in Washington routinely describe Mr. Trump in shockingly dismissive terms. He is compared to an easily distracted child who must be kept 'on task'. Senior Republicans call him out of his depth."
- More bad news for Trump: His poll numbers just hit a bunch of new lows (WaPo) "A new poll from Quinnipiac University shows Trump's disapproval rating rising to 58 percent... Just 36 percent approved of Trump's job performance. The Quinnipiac poll also shows the president's favorable rating — more of a personal measure than a job measure — dropping to a new low of 35 percent. The percentage of Americans who strongly approve of him is tied for an all-time low at 25 percent. And the percentage who strongly disapprove has reached an all-time high of 51 percent. Interestingly, the reason the numbers have ticked down appears to be the group that elected Trump in the first place: white, working-class voters. ...they are split, with 47 percent approving and 46 percent disapproving."
POLITICS:
- Can Trump Successfully Remodel the GOP? (National Review) "The Republican-party establishment is caught in an existential paradox. Without Donald Trump’s populist and nationalist 2016 campaign, the GOP probably would not have won the presidency. So are conservatives angry at the apostate Trump or indebted to him for helping them politically...? For now, most Republicans are overlooking Trump’s bothersome character excesses... But there are many fault lines that will loom large in the next few years. If he stalls the economy or gets into a quagmire abroad, then Trump will end up like most other American populist mavericks — as an interesting footnote."
SPORTS:
- A new Olympics reality: Fewer cities want to host the Games (WaPo) "Costs are exorbitant, economic benefits are dubious, and fewer and fewer cities bother even throwing their hats in the ring."
BOTTOM OF THE NEWS:
- 7 Discoveries That Started as School Assignments (Mental Floss)
TODAY'S SONG:
- Respect (Aretha Franklin)
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Thursday, May 11, 2017
"JUST TURN THE LIGHTS OFF. TURN THE LIGHTS OFF." (ON COMEY)
TOP OF THE NEWS:
- After Trump fired Comey, White House staff scrambled to explain why (WaPo) "After Spicer spent several minutes hidden in the bushes behind these sets, Janet Montesi, an executive assistant in the press office, emerged and told reporters that Spicer would answer some questions, as long as he was not filmed doing so. Spicer then emerged. 'Just turn the lights off. Turn the lights off,' he ordered. 'We'll take care of this... Can you just turn that light off?'"
- 'He got tired of him' (Politico) "He [Trump] found the testimony last week infuriating and griped about it extensively for at least two days, several associates and advisers said. The firing...came days after Comey asked Congress for more resources to pursue the investigation, which had stalled, according to officials briefed on the matter. But senior aides and other associates who know the president say the firing was triggered not by any one event but rather by the president’s growing frustration with the Russia investigation, negative media coverage and the growing feeling that he couldn’t control Comey, who was a near-constant presence on television in recent days. ...one White House official described the past 24 hours inside the Trump White House like this: 'Total chaos — even by our standards.'"
- Will the Law Answer to the President, or the President to the Law? (Atlantic) "The question has to be asked of all the rest of us: Perhaps the worst fears for the integrity of the U.S. government and U.S. institutions are be being fulfilled. If this firing stands—and if Trump dares to announce a pliable replacement—the rule of law begins to shake and break. The law will answer to the president, not the president to the law."
- Donald Trump’s Firing of James Comey (NYT) "Of course, if Mr. Trump truly believed, as he said in his letter of dismissal, that Mr. Comey had undermined 'public trust and confidence' in the agency, he could just as well have fired him on his first day in office. Mr. Comey was fired because he was leading an active investigation that could bring down a president. Though compromised by his own poor judgment, Mr. Comey’s agency has been pursuing ties between the Russian government and Mr. Trump and his associates, with potentially ruinous consequences for the administration."
- Firing FBI director Comey is already backfiring on Trump. It’s only going to get worse (WaPo) "In one of the hastily-arranged damage-control interviews, deputy White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders made an especially revealing statement that underscored why so many people are worried. Asked by Tucker Carlson on Fox News how Comey’s termination will impact the Russia investigation, she replied: 'I think the bigger point on that is, ‘My gosh, Tucker, when are they gonna let that go?’ It’s been going on for nearly a year. Frankly, it’s kinda getting absurd. There’s nothing there.' 'It’s time to move on,' she added. 'Frankly, it’s time to focus on the things the American people care about.'"
- The Comey Ouster (National Review) "Of course, Donald Trump has often been less than forthright in his public statements, and the reasons that President Trump should have fired Comey — for example, those outlined by Rosenstein — appear not to be the reasons he did. Press reports suggests that Trump was angry about the Russian probe, Comey’s ubiquity in the media, and the FBI’s director’s refusal to make a statement exonerating him. If true, none of this speaks well of Trump. Politically, the firing obviously isn’t going to tamp down the Russian controversy, but intensify it. As will the White House’s typically shambolic handling of the dismissal."
- Donald Trump Was Wrong to Fire James Comey (National Review) "Amidst all the outrage and fury, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that we still don’t have a single credible report of collusion between Trump-campaign officials and Russian intelligence. At the same time, we still don’t know the full story of Russian efforts to disrupt our presidential election. The crisis we face isn’t 'constitutional,' it’s a crisis of confidence in our public institutions. In an atmosphere of mistrust, conspiracy theories proliferate. By firing James Comey, Trump made the decisive case for a truly independent investigation. May it commence with all deliberate speed."
- Comey firing roils Washington, prompts calls for independent investigation and divides Republicans (WaPo) "But Democratic aides said Tuesday night they were 'heartened' to see several senior Republicans cast doubt Tuesday on Trump’s decision to fire Comey. They especially cited Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who is up for reelection next year in a contest that Democrats believe could become competitive if anti-Trump sentiments sweep the nation."
- The Curious Case for Firing Comey (Weekly Standard) "The official reason the administration offered...[was] a public statement [from Comey] back in July recommending against prosecuting former secretary of state Hillary Clinton was inappropriate. All of this information was known to Trump when he decided to keep Comey in his job at the beginning of the president's term—making his decision to fire Comey in May all the more confusing."
BUSINESS/ECONOMY:
- Jimmy Carter: Trump is right. Canada’s lumber trade practices are unfair (WaPo) "Canada enjoys an inherent advantage in that the vast majority of its standing timber is owned by provincial governments, which are free to dump their timber at practically no cost in order to stimulate their forest industry. At the same time, most of America’s timber is privately owned, and market forces impose a minimum price at which farm owners can continue in business."
- The meaning of life in a world without work (The Guardian) "The crucial problem isn’t creating new jobs. The crucial problem is creating new jobs that humans perform better than algorithms. Consequently, by 2050 a new class of people might emerge – the useless class. People who are not just unemployed, but unemployable. So what will the useless class do all day?"
CLIMATE CHANGE:
- Senate unexpectedly rejects bid to repeal a key Obama-era environmental regulation (WaPo) "The U.S. Senate narrowly voted down a resolution...to repeal an Obama-era rule to regulate methane emissions from drilling on public lands...as three Republicans joined every Democrat in voting 51 to 49 to preserve the regulation. It was the first time since Trump’s election that an attempt to use the Congressional Review Act, a 1996 law that allows lawmakers to overturn rules within 60 days of their adoption if the president signs the bill into law, has failed."
- Is the Paris Climate Agreement Built on Dodgy Math? (Ozy) "...instead of looking at emissions within national territories, some researchers suggest it might be more useful to measure the environmental effects of consumption. According to this 'consumption-based accounting,' Americans are responsible for 10 times as many emissions as the Chinese. The overall trend isn’t rocket science: The richer a country, the more it consumes, and the larger its environmental footprint. So if you want to reduce your environmental footprint, changing what you buy could make a far bigger difference than turning down your house’s thermostat by a degree or two."
- The Business Case for the Paris Climate Accord (NYT) "Global statecraft relies on trust, reputation and credibility, which can be all too easily squandered. The United States is far better off maintaining a seat at the head of the table rather than standing outside. If America fails to honor a global agreement that it helped forge, the repercussions will undercut our diplomatic priorities across the globe, not to mention the country’s global standing and the market access of our firms."
NEWS:
- Trump’s Uncontrolled Foreign Policy (National Review) "The confusion and chaos is a reflection of the man himself. America’s prosperity and power depends on its having a self-governing people. But now it doesn’t even have a self-governing president. Trump veers from one policy stance to another, seemingly when the mood strikes him. He hires personnel based not on policy affinity or competence, but on whether they look the part."
- Jason Chaffetz Rolls Toward Infamy (New Yorker) "Then, in April, following months of complaints from his constituents—including a contentious and widely YouTubed town hall, after which he whined that the voters had come to 'bully and intimidate' him—he announced that he wouldn’t seek reëlection in 2018, and might even quit Congress before his term ends. Perhaps he’s preparing for Utah’s 2020 gubernatorial race, or even a bid for the Presidency later on. More likely, he senses the danger—reputational, at least—in continuing to stand between Trump and the scrutiny he deserves."
READ THIS:
- Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us) (Tom Vanderbilt) "Why does the other lane always seem to be moving faster? What does the way you drive say about you? Is the road a microcosm of society or an autonomous republic that functions according to its own set of rules? Does traffic work the same all over the world? Traffic answers these and many other questions, plunging head-on into traffic, viewing it not simply as a social ill or as a design problem, but as a leading cultural indicator and a living, organic model of what physicists call 'emergent collective behavior', of things which often happen for no discernible reason..."
SOCIALIZED MEDICINE:
- GOP Doublespeak on ‘Free Market’ Health Care (National Review) "Republicans are afraid of actually standing for conservative principle when it comes to policy. Here is the conservative policy take on health insurance: A free market guarantees the highest-quality, lowest-price service in any market. Skewing that market with government-backed incentive schemes reduces efficiency, destroys competition, and undercuts quality. If we all truly want better health care, the only way to provide it is through measures that incentivize a higher supply of health care, not a rationing of the available care through redistributionist schemes. That means the first priority for Republicans should be removing damaging regulations on preexisting conditions and essential health benefits."
- The Obscure Senate Rule That Will Dictate Tax and Health Care Policy (Ozy) "The Byrd Rule...dictates that each aspect of a reconciliation bill must affect spending or revenue and must not increase the deficit outside of the budget outline’s 10-year span. It also cannot touch Social Security. Any senator may raise a point of order against a bill he or she believes violates the Byrd Rule, and the question goes to the Senate’s parliamentarian. Loathed in the House — as the Senate often is, as a whole — the rule’s application can be difficult to predict. For example, the requirement that fiscal effects not be 'merely incidental' to a provision’s nonbudgetary effects leaves plenty of wiggle room."
SPORTS:
- A devastating tragedy: Wife of ESPN's Chris Berman killed in two-car crash in Connecticut (WaPo) "Police were investigating whether Bertulis had suffered a medical emergency just before Berman’s car crashed into the back of his car on Route 64 near Tuttle Road, a state police source told the Courant."
TECHNOLOGY:
- Facebook Is Using AI To Make Language Translation Much Faster (Fast Company) "It’s a vital development for the social network—after all, there are thousands of languages, and the company doesn’t want its users to have to worry that something they post will be ignored by others because they don’t understand the content."
BOTTOM OF THE NEWS:
- McDonald's invents a Frork made of French fries (NBC News) "McDonald's wants to get the word out that sandwiches in its new Signature Crafted Recipes line-up are so packed with toppings that you'll need a special utensil to deal with it — the Frork."
TODAY'S SONG:
- Bones (RadioHead)
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- 'He got tired of him' (Politico) "He [Trump] found the testimony last week infuriating and griped about it extensively for at least two days, several associates and advisers said. The firing...came days after Comey asked Congress for more resources to pursue the investigation, which had stalled, according to officials briefed on the matter. But senior aides and other associates who know the president say the firing was triggered not by any one event but rather by the president’s growing frustration with the Russia investigation, negative media coverage and the growing feeling that he couldn’t control Comey, who was a near-constant presence on television in recent days. ...one White House official described the past 24 hours inside the Trump White House like this: 'Total chaos — even by our standards.'"
- Will the Law Answer to the President, or the President to the Law? (Atlantic) "The question has to be asked of all the rest of us: Perhaps the worst fears for the integrity of the U.S. government and U.S. institutions are be being fulfilled. If this firing stands—and if Trump dares to announce a pliable replacement—the rule of law begins to shake and break. The law will answer to the president, not the president to the law."
- Donald Trump’s Firing of James Comey (NYT) "Of course, if Mr. Trump truly believed, as he said in his letter of dismissal, that Mr. Comey had undermined 'public trust and confidence' in the agency, he could just as well have fired him on his first day in office. Mr. Comey was fired because he was leading an active investigation that could bring down a president. Though compromised by his own poor judgment, Mr. Comey’s agency has been pursuing ties between the Russian government and Mr. Trump and his associates, with potentially ruinous consequences for the administration."
- Firing FBI director Comey is already backfiring on Trump. It’s only going to get worse (WaPo) "In one of the hastily-arranged damage-control interviews, deputy White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders made an especially revealing statement that underscored why so many people are worried. Asked by Tucker Carlson on Fox News how Comey’s termination will impact the Russia investigation, she replied: 'I think the bigger point on that is, ‘My gosh, Tucker, when are they gonna let that go?’ It’s been going on for nearly a year. Frankly, it’s kinda getting absurd. There’s nothing there.' 'It’s time to move on,' she added. 'Frankly, it’s time to focus on the things the American people care about.'"
- The Comey Ouster (National Review) "Of course, Donald Trump has often been less than forthright in his public statements, and the reasons that President Trump should have fired Comey — for example, those outlined by Rosenstein — appear not to be the reasons he did. Press reports suggests that Trump was angry about the Russian probe, Comey’s ubiquity in the media, and the FBI’s director’s refusal to make a statement exonerating him. If true, none of this speaks well of Trump. Politically, the firing obviously isn’t going to tamp down the Russian controversy, but intensify it. As will the White House’s typically shambolic handling of the dismissal."
- Donald Trump Was Wrong to Fire James Comey (National Review) "Amidst all the outrage and fury, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that we still don’t have a single credible report of collusion between Trump-campaign officials and Russian intelligence. At the same time, we still don’t know the full story of Russian efforts to disrupt our presidential election. The crisis we face isn’t 'constitutional,' it’s a crisis of confidence in our public institutions. In an atmosphere of mistrust, conspiracy theories proliferate. By firing James Comey, Trump made the decisive case for a truly independent investigation. May it commence with all deliberate speed."
- Comey firing roils Washington, prompts calls for independent investigation and divides Republicans (WaPo) "But Democratic aides said Tuesday night they were 'heartened' to see several senior Republicans cast doubt Tuesday on Trump’s decision to fire Comey. They especially cited Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who is up for reelection next year in a contest that Democrats believe could become competitive if anti-Trump sentiments sweep the nation."
- The Curious Case for Firing Comey (Weekly Standard) "The official reason the administration offered...[was] a public statement [from Comey] back in July recommending against prosecuting former secretary of state Hillary Clinton was inappropriate. All of this information was known to Trump when he decided to keep Comey in his job at the beginning of the president's term—making his decision to fire Comey in May all the more confusing."
BUSINESS/ECONOMY:
- Jimmy Carter: Trump is right. Canada’s lumber trade practices are unfair (WaPo) "Canada enjoys an inherent advantage in that the vast majority of its standing timber is owned by provincial governments, which are free to dump their timber at practically no cost in order to stimulate their forest industry. At the same time, most of America’s timber is privately owned, and market forces impose a minimum price at which farm owners can continue in business."
- The meaning of life in a world without work (The Guardian) "The crucial problem isn’t creating new jobs. The crucial problem is creating new jobs that humans perform better than algorithms. Consequently, by 2050 a new class of people might emerge – the useless class. People who are not just unemployed, but unemployable. So what will the useless class do all day?"
CLIMATE CHANGE:
- Senate unexpectedly rejects bid to repeal a key Obama-era environmental regulation (WaPo) "The U.S. Senate narrowly voted down a resolution...to repeal an Obama-era rule to regulate methane emissions from drilling on public lands...as three Republicans joined every Democrat in voting 51 to 49 to preserve the regulation. It was the first time since Trump’s election that an attempt to use the Congressional Review Act, a 1996 law that allows lawmakers to overturn rules within 60 days of their adoption if the president signs the bill into law, has failed."
- Is the Paris Climate Agreement Built on Dodgy Math? (Ozy) "...instead of looking at emissions within national territories, some researchers suggest it might be more useful to measure the environmental effects of consumption. According to this 'consumption-based accounting,' Americans are responsible for 10 times as many emissions as the Chinese. The overall trend isn’t rocket science: The richer a country, the more it consumes, and the larger its environmental footprint. So if you want to reduce your environmental footprint, changing what you buy could make a far bigger difference than turning down your house’s thermostat by a degree or two."
- The Business Case for the Paris Climate Accord (NYT) "Global statecraft relies on trust, reputation and credibility, which can be all too easily squandered. The United States is far better off maintaining a seat at the head of the table rather than standing outside. If America fails to honor a global agreement that it helped forge, the repercussions will undercut our diplomatic priorities across the globe, not to mention the country’s global standing and the market access of our firms."
NEWS:
- Trump’s Uncontrolled Foreign Policy (National Review) "The confusion and chaos is a reflection of the man himself. America’s prosperity and power depends on its having a self-governing people. But now it doesn’t even have a self-governing president. Trump veers from one policy stance to another, seemingly when the mood strikes him. He hires personnel based not on policy affinity or competence, but on whether they look the part."
- Jason Chaffetz Rolls Toward Infamy (New Yorker) "Then, in April, following months of complaints from his constituents—including a contentious and widely YouTubed town hall, after which he whined that the voters had come to 'bully and intimidate' him—he announced that he wouldn’t seek reëlection in 2018, and might even quit Congress before his term ends. Perhaps he’s preparing for Utah’s 2020 gubernatorial race, or even a bid for the Presidency later on. More likely, he senses the danger—reputational, at least—in continuing to stand between Trump and the scrutiny he deserves."
READ THIS:
- Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us) (Tom Vanderbilt) "Why does the other lane always seem to be moving faster? What does the way you drive say about you? Is the road a microcosm of society or an autonomous republic that functions according to its own set of rules? Does traffic work the same all over the world? Traffic answers these and many other questions, plunging head-on into traffic, viewing it not simply as a social ill or as a design problem, but as a leading cultural indicator and a living, organic model of what physicists call 'emergent collective behavior', of things which often happen for no discernible reason..."
SOCIALIZED MEDICINE:
- GOP Doublespeak on ‘Free Market’ Health Care (National Review) "Republicans are afraid of actually standing for conservative principle when it comes to policy. Here is the conservative policy take on health insurance: A free market guarantees the highest-quality, lowest-price service in any market. Skewing that market with government-backed incentive schemes reduces efficiency, destroys competition, and undercuts quality. If we all truly want better health care, the only way to provide it is through measures that incentivize a higher supply of health care, not a rationing of the available care through redistributionist schemes. That means the first priority for Republicans should be removing damaging regulations on preexisting conditions and essential health benefits."
- The Obscure Senate Rule That Will Dictate Tax and Health Care Policy (Ozy) "The Byrd Rule...dictates that each aspect of a reconciliation bill must affect spending or revenue and must not increase the deficit outside of the budget outline’s 10-year span. It also cannot touch Social Security. Any senator may raise a point of order against a bill he or she believes violates the Byrd Rule, and the question goes to the Senate’s parliamentarian. Loathed in the House — as the Senate often is, as a whole — the rule’s application can be difficult to predict. For example, the requirement that fiscal effects not be 'merely incidental' to a provision’s nonbudgetary effects leaves plenty of wiggle room."
SPORTS:
- A devastating tragedy: Wife of ESPN's Chris Berman killed in two-car crash in Connecticut (WaPo) "Police were investigating whether Bertulis had suffered a medical emergency just before Berman’s car crashed into the back of his car on Route 64 near Tuttle Road, a state police source told the Courant."
TECHNOLOGY:
- Facebook Is Using AI To Make Language Translation Much Faster (Fast Company) "It’s a vital development for the social network—after all, there are thousands of languages, and the company doesn’t want its users to have to worry that something they post will be ignored by others because they don’t understand the content."
BOTTOM OF THE NEWS:
- McDonald's invents a Frork made of French fries (NBC News) "McDonald's wants to get the word out that sandwiches in its new Signature Crafted Recipes line-up are so packed with toppings that you'll need a special utensil to deal with it — the Frork."
TODAY'S SONG:
- Bones (RadioHead)
Tuesday, May 9, 2017
HERE COMES THE JUDGE(S)!
TOP OF THE NEWS:
- Trump to Nominate 10 Federal Judges (Weekly Standard) "The nominations include five appeals court seats, four district court seats, and a federal clams court seat."
- Here come Trump’s judges: President to put forward more strong judicial nominees (WaPo) "The nominees make up an impressive list of highly respected jurists, attorneys and legal thinkers. Those of us who doubted Trump would take judicial nominations seriously may have some crow to eat. Especially when one looks at the names to be announced for appellate court vacancies, this is as strong a list of nominees as one could hope for."
BUSINESS/ECONOMY:
- 35 of 37 economists said Trump was wrong. The other two misread the question (WaPo) "The University of Chicago's Booth School of Business regularly polls economists on controversial questions. In a survey the school published last week on Trump's tax plans, only two out of the 37 economists that responded said that the cuts would stimulate the economy enough to cancel out the effect on total tax revenue. Those two economists now both say they made a mistake, and that they misunderstood the question."
GIGGING THE ECONOMY:
- Is the Gig Economy Working? (New Yorker) "Gigging reflects the endlessly personalizable values of our own era, but its social effects, untried by time, remain uncertain. Revolution or disruption is easy. Spreading long-term social benefit is hard."
- How the Side Hustle Will End Capitalism As We Know It (Ozy)“'Crowd-based capitalism' will usurp the corporation now at the center of the economy. But problems arise when casual side hustles turn into full-time gigs. We have 'painstakingly' built a system of worker protections, minimum wages, regulations and pension schemes that 'transformed full-time employment from something that was pretty reprehensible 100 years ago to something that looks pretty good in many countries today,' says Sundararajan."
HEALTH:
- The psychological importance of wasting time (Quartz) "At the end of the day, all of us have the urge to while away time flicking through a magazine, walking around the block, or simply doing nothing. We should embrace these moments, and see them as what they are: time well spent."
NEWS:
- Washington Loves General McMaster. Trump Doesn't (Bloomberg) "On policy, the faction of the White House loyal to senior strategist Steve Bannon is convinced McMaster is trying to trick the president into the kind of nation building that Trump campaigned against. This professional military officer has failed to read the president -- by not giving him a chance to ask questions during briefings, at times even lecturing Trump."
- Trump’s tough talk about North Korea might actually end the crisis (WaPo) "America’s conflicting goals have...complicated Beijing’s position. Nuclear weapons in North Korea are against China’s national security interests, for obvious reasons. But the collapse of the North Korean state as a result of regime change forced upon it from the outside would be equally catastrophic in China’s eyes. So for China, denuclearization cannot be obtained by means of regime change. Today, Trump seems to be freeing the United States from the neoconservative and liberal-interventionist policies of the past. For the first time in 16 years, the American side has come out and said rather unequivocally that the foremost priority is disarmament."
- Emmanuel Macron’s extraordinary political achievement (WaPo) "Before you do anything else, spend a moment thinking about the extraordinary achievement of modern France’s youngest president-elect, Emmanuel Macron. Not since Napoleon has anybody leapt to the top of French public life with such speed. Not since World War II has anybody won the French presidency without a political party and a parliamentary base. Aside from some belated endorsements, he had little real support from the French establishment, few of whose members rated the chances of a man from an unfashionable town when he launched his candidacy last year."
- John McCain: Why We Must Support Human Rights (NYT) "To view foreign policy as simply transactional is more dangerous than its proponents realize. Depriving the oppressed of a beacon of hope could lose us the world we have built and thrived in. It could cost our reputation in history as the nation distinct from all others in our achievements, our identity and our enduring influence on mankind. Our values are central to all three."
- The past 100 days have been a disaster — for Democrats (WaPo) "So let’s review their record. The Democrats spent much of Trump’s first months in office pushing their unfounded narrative of Trump’s alleged collusion with Vladimir Putin. But that narrative went up in smoke when Trump launched missile strikes against Putin’s Syrian ally, Bashar al-Assad. But most damaging has been the Democrats’ seemingly nonstop efforts to further alienate the millions of Americans who twice voted for Barack Obama but switched to Trump last year."
- This is not a normal president (WaPo) "President Trump remains an angry, irrational figure, someone who still must stir up hatred — against the press, against immigrants, against Democrats — to enliven his base. Rhetorically, he is still the candidate of the resentful America First crowd, not the president of the entire country. His rambling, incoherent and factually deficient remarks in Harrisburg, Pa., remind us of the pathetic emptiness of the message — I’m with you because I hate the same people you do."
READ THIS:
- The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency (Chris Whipple) "The first in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at the White House Chiefs of Staff, whose actions—and inactions—have defined the course of our country."
TECHNOLOGY:
- The Quantum Computer Revolution Is Closer Than You May Think (National Review) "The race for a quantum computer is the new arms race. The danger of a quantum computer is its ability to tear through the encryption protecting most of our online data, which means it could wipe out the global financial system or locate weapons of mass destruction. Quantum computers operate much differently from today’s classical computers and could crack encryption in less time than it takes to snap one’s fingers. While quantum computers will lead to astounding breakthroughs in medicine, manufacturing, artificial intelligence, defense, and more, rogue states or actors could use quantum computers for fiercely destructive purposes."
- Justice Department opens criminal probe into Uber (WaPo) "The federal criminal probe...focuses on software developed by Uber called 'Greyball.' The program helped the company evade officials in cities where Uber was not yet approved. The software identified and blocked rides to transportation regulators who were posing as Uber customers to prove that the company was operating illegally."
TRUMPTELL:
- Obama Warned Trump About Hiring Flynn, Officials Say (NYT) "Mr. Obama, who had fired Mr. Flynn as the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told Mr. Trump that he would have profound concerns about Mr. Flynn becoming a top national security aide..."
- Obama warned Trump against hiring Flynn as national security adviser, officials say (WaPo) "Obama delivered his warning on Nov. 10, two days after the election, when Trump visited the White House and met with his predecessor in the Oval Office for what both men described at the time as a cordial conversation."
- Flynn’s Public Offer to Testify for Immunity Suggests He May Have Nothing to Say (Just Security) "The fact that Flynn and his lawyer have made his offer publicly suggests that he has nothing good to give the prosecutors... Flynn’s lawyer may have concluded that at a minimum the public offer would help change the atmospherics around his client, which could help him at a future stage. But the ploy feels desperate, indicating that Flynn may not have much to offer. And the very fact that Flynn’s lawyer is making a play for immunity at this stage suggests that he has some fear that his client faces real criminal exposure."
BOTTOM OF THE NEWS:
- Amid Putin ‘bromance,’ Steven Seagal banned from Ukraine as national security threat (WaPo) "Seagal is banned from entering the country for five years on grounds he has 'committed socially dangerous actions ... that contradict the interests of maintaining Ukraine's security,' according to a Ukrainian security service letter published by the news site Apostrophe and reported by the Guardian."
TODAY'S SONG:
- Lawyers, Guns & Money (Warren Zevon)
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Monday, May 8, 2017
THE POWER OF "YOUR" DATA
TOP OF THE NEWS:
- The world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data (Economist) " Internet companies’ control of data gives them enormous power. Old ways of thinking about competition, devised in the era of oil, look outdated in what has come to be called the 'data economy' (see Briefing). A new approach is needed. This abundance of data changes the nature of competition. The giants’ surveillance systems span the entire economy. They have a 'God’s eye view' of activities in their own markets and beyond. The nature of data makes the antitrust remedies of the past less useful. A radical rethink is required—and as the outlines of a new approach start to become apparent, two ideas stand out. The first is that antitrust authorities need to move from the industrial era into the 21st century. They now need to take into account the extent of firms’ data assets when assessing the impact of deals. The second principle is to loosen the grip that providers of online services have over data and give more control to those who supply them."
- Giving the Behemoths a Leg Up on the Little Guy (NYT) "At the moment, the internet isn’t in a good place. The Frightful Five — Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Alphabet, Google’s parent company — control nearly everything of value in the digital world, including operating systems, app stores, browsers, cloud storage infrastructure, and oceans of data from which to spin new products. A handful of others — Comcast, AT&T, Verizon — control the wired and wireless connections through which all your data flows. People used to talk about the internet as a wonderland for innovative upstarts, but lately the upstarts keep getting clobbered. Today the internet is gigantic corporations, all the way down. The giants seem likely to keep getting bigger. If we give them a chance to buy up every fast lane online, we’ll be removing another check on their untamed power."
- How to Protect Your Privacy as More Apps Harvest Your Data (NYT) "For consumers, giving up some data has become part of the trade-off of receiving compelling, personalized services. But that doesn’t mean you have to be caught by surprise. Here are some tips from privacy experts on protecting yourself from tricky data collection. Read privacy policies. Research company business models. Audit your apps. Opt out for good."
BUSINESS/INVESTING:
- Everything you need to know about trade economics, in 70 words (WaPo) "If a country consumes more than it produces, it must import more than it exports. That’s not a rip-off; that’s arithmetic. If we manage to negotiate a reduction in the Chinese trade surplus with the United States, we will have an increased trade deficit with some other country. Federal deficit spending, a massive and continuing act of dissaving, is the culprit. Control that spending and you will control trade deficits."
- The Online Marketplace That’s a Portal to the Future of Capitalism (NYT) "These shipments were made in accordance with a bilateral trade agreement between the United States and China that originated in 2010, meant to address the rising tide of cross-border e-commerce. Items up to 4.4 pounds — more than the weight of, for example, a violin and bow — can be shipped as ePackets, at extremely low rates with tracking numbers and delivery confirmation. This obscure trade deal has become the quiet conduit for an explosion in a new and underexamined American consumer behavior: buying things directly from their countries of manufacture. This, obviously, presents a problem for the stores and retailers accustomed to serving as importers themselves. Cross-border purchases compound the issue: Because of ePacket, and the decades-old international postal agreements that serve as its foundation, lightweight product shipments from China are heavily subsidized by the U.S.P.S. Wish certainly illuminates the peculiarities of international shipping, but it casts a much brighter light on the state of globalized manufacturing and commerce. In fact, it offers a somewhat convincing vision of what they might become in the near future. Wish shoppers are hardly less alienated from the labor that makes their purchases possible than Walmart customers or iPhone owners are. But their experience at least hews closer to the global economic situation as it truly exists. Services like this offer us a preview of a maximalist capitalist future, in which the near-entirety of current-day retail — stores, humans and even storelike websites — have been identified as gatekeepers or sources of friction and accordingly obliterated."
- Index Funds Are Finally Sexy. What a Shame (Bloomberg) "In any given year, at least four out of five fund managers underperformed their benchmark. Instead of chasing hot funds or hot stocks, investors would have been better served putting their money in index funds. These funds, baskets of stocks that replicate a stock index like the S&P 500 or the Russell 2000, don’t try to beat the market, but simply aim to match it. That’s enough to beat 80 percent of actively managed funds in any given year, and better than almost all of them over a longer stretch of time. In addition, their low fees make a meaningful difference to an investor’s return. There were actually three drivers of index-fund growth: the explosion of exchange-traded funds, the rise of fee-based advisers, and the powerful bull market that began in 2009, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average, now over 20,000, stood at around 7,000."
- Why I Lost My Bet With Warren Buffett (Bloomberg) "Warren discussed the bet in this year’s annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway Inc. shareholders, explaining that the high fees active money managers charge create a headwind relative to low-cost passive alternatives. He is correct that hedge-fund fees are high, and his reasoning is convincing. Fees matter in investing, no doubt about it."
ENTERTAINMENT:
- The Secret Hit-Making Power of the Spotify Playlist (Wired) "Think of it as the moneyball of music, a ruthlessly data-driven approach to introducing listeners to songs. By the time a song lands on Today’s Top Hits or other equally popular sets, Spotify has so relentlessly tested it that it almost can’t fail."
- The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Is Still Alive (New Yorker) "This year, Journey, Tupac Shakur, Joan Baez, Yes, and Pearl Jam were inducted into the Hall alongside E.L.O., while the producer, guitarist, and songwriter Nile Rodgers received an award for Musical Excellence."
NEWS:
- Trump: ‘normalized’ but still scary (WaPo) "Ignore what’s behind the curtain. Deal with what comes out in front: the policy, the pronouncements, the actions. And so far they hang together enough — Neil Gorsuch, Keystone XL, NATO reassurances, Syria strike, Cabinet appointments — that one can begin to talk plausibly about the normalization of this presidency. What happens when the red phone rings at 3 in the morning? I’d say: Let it ring. Let the wizard sleep. Forward the call to Defense Secretary Mattis."
- Trump has a dangerous disability (WaPo) "It is urgent for Americans to think and speak clearly about President Trump’s inability to do either. This seems to be not a mere disinclination but a disability. It is not merely the result of intellectual sloth but of an untrained mind bereft of information and married to stratospheric self-confidence. His fathomless lack of interest in America’s path to the present and his limitless gullibility leave him susceptible to being blown about by gusts of factoids that cling like lint to a disorderly mind."
READ THIS:
- Wilson (A. Scott Berg) "From the scholar-President who ushered the country through its first great world war to the man of intense passion and turbulence, from the idealist determined to make the world 'safe for democracy' to the stroke-crippled leader whose incapacity and the subterfuges around it were among the century’s greatest secrets, the result is an intimate portrait written with a particularly contemporary point of view – a book at once magisterial and deeply emotional about the whole of Wilson’s life, accomplishments, and failings. This is not just Wilson the icon – but Wilson the man."
SOCIALIZED MEDICINE:
- There are exactly zero women working on the Senate version of the GOP health care bill (Quartz)
- A side-by-side comparison of Obamacare and the GOP’s replacement plan (LA Times)
- ‘Nobody dies because they don’t have access to health care,’ GOP lawmaker says. He got booed (WaPo) "After the town hall Friday, Labrador said on his Facebook page, 'It was my privilege to spend two hours today in Lewiston fielding questions from my constituents, many of them about our efforts to provide quality health care to all Americans to an affordable and sustainable cost.'"
SPORTS:
- NFL players fight pain with medical marijuana: ‘Managing it with pills was slowly killing me’ (WaPo) "NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said last week that he opposes players using the drug recreationally but is willing to listen to the league’s medical advisers on the potential value of medicinal marijuana. The NFL Players Association has formed a pain management committee to study the issue, and many expect marijuana to become a bigger discussion point in the near future. The union could urge the league to differentiate between recreational and medicinal use or push to lessen the penalties for a failed test."
- This former NFL player lost 84 pounds in four months — and kept it off (LA Times) "I was eating at least 7,000 calories a day. I would start eating from the minute I woke up. I would pound protein bars, drink shakes, smoothies, eat a full breakfast with eggs, sausage — you name it. I had a bag of almonds that I would eat all day. I would have protein shakes after lunch. I would eat dinner and then consume half of one of those big tubs of Greek yogurt. Then, in bed at night, I would eat a pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Don’t wait. Losing weight is like climbing a mountain. If you look up at the mountain before you start, it’s going to be daunting. But if you just put your head down and start walking, you have a chance to accomplish the feat."
TECHNOLOGY:
- Robots don’t have to take over jobs in order to be a problem for workers (Quartz) "...humans will continue to have a competitive advantage over robots and algorithms…because they’ll be so poorly paid. This type of transition has played out multiple times in the past (which, to be fair, some argue is irrelevant). Technology creates new, skilled jobs...even as it deskills others, like taxi drivers. For those deskilled jobs, or at least some of them, wages fall. In other words: Don’t worry about machines replacing humans. Worry about machines replacing the skilled portions of human jobs, and leaving the cheap drudge work behind."
- How to Prepare for an Automated Future (NYT) "Pew Research Center and Elon University surveyed 1,408 people who work in technology and education to find out if they think new schooling will emerge in the next decade to successfully train workers for the future. Two-thirds said yes; the rest said no." and Bosses believe your work skills will soon be useless (WaPo)
THE EDGE OF HUMAN ENDURANCE:
- Nike’s Quest to Beat the Two-Hour Marathon Comes Up Oh So Short (Wired) "It was a close-run thing, but the two-hour marathon remains unbroken, for now, with Kipchoge finishing his marathon in 2 hours and 25 seconds. (Because the three elite athletes contesting Breaking2 ran with a roster of interchangeable pacemakers, which violates IAAF regulations, Kipchoge’s run will not become an official world record. The current world record for the marath:n still stands at 2.02.57, set in Berlin in 2014, by Dennis Kimetto, also of Kenya.)"
- Why You’ll Never Run a Sub 2 Hour Marathon—But the Pros Might (Wired) "...that number fails to convey the psychological and physical fortitude needed to pull it off."
BOTTOM OF THE NEWS:
- Ranking All 373 Rolling Stones Songs (Vulture)
TODAY'S SONG:
- Start Me Up (Rolling Stones)
Sign up for email distribution of the Day's Most Compelling News below or by visiting Top of the News
- Giving the Behemoths a Leg Up on the Little Guy (NYT) "At the moment, the internet isn’t in a good place. The Frightful Five — Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Alphabet, Google’s parent company — control nearly everything of value in the digital world, including operating systems, app stores, browsers, cloud storage infrastructure, and oceans of data from which to spin new products. A handful of others — Comcast, AT&T, Verizon — control the wired and wireless connections through which all your data flows. People used to talk about the internet as a wonderland for innovative upstarts, but lately the upstarts keep getting clobbered. Today the internet is gigantic corporations, all the way down. The giants seem likely to keep getting bigger. If we give them a chance to buy up every fast lane online, we’ll be removing another check on their untamed power."
- How to Protect Your Privacy as More Apps Harvest Your Data (NYT) "For consumers, giving up some data has become part of the trade-off of receiving compelling, personalized services. But that doesn’t mean you have to be caught by surprise. Here are some tips from privacy experts on protecting yourself from tricky data collection. Read privacy policies. Research company business models. Audit your apps. Opt out for good."
BUSINESS/INVESTING:
- Everything you need to know about trade economics, in 70 words (WaPo) "If a country consumes more than it produces, it must import more than it exports. That’s not a rip-off; that’s arithmetic. If we manage to negotiate a reduction in the Chinese trade surplus with the United States, we will have an increased trade deficit with some other country. Federal deficit spending, a massive and continuing act of dissaving, is the culprit. Control that spending and you will control trade deficits."
- The Online Marketplace That’s a Portal to the Future of Capitalism (NYT) "These shipments were made in accordance with a bilateral trade agreement between the United States and China that originated in 2010, meant to address the rising tide of cross-border e-commerce. Items up to 4.4 pounds — more than the weight of, for example, a violin and bow — can be shipped as ePackets, at extremely low rates with tracking numbers and delivery confirmation. This obscure trade deal has become the quiet conduit for an explosion in a new and underexamined American consumer behavior: buying things directly from their countries of manufacture. This, obviously, presents a problem for the stores and retailers accustomed to serving as importers themselves. Cross-border purchases compound the issue: Because of ePacket, and the decades-old international postal agreements that serve as its foundation, lightweight product shipments from China are heavily subsidized by the U.S.P.S. Wish certainly illuminates the peculiarities of international shipping, but it casts a much brighter light on the state of globalized manufacturing and commerce. In fact, it offers a somewhat convincing vision of what they might become in the near future. Wish shoppers are hardly less alienated from the labor that makes their purchases possible than Walmart customers or iPhone owners are. But their experience at least hews closer to the global economic situation as it truly exists. Services like this offer us a preview of a maximalist capitalist future, in which the near-entirety of current-day retail — stores, humans and even storelike websites — have been identified as gatekeepers or sources of friction and accordingly obliterated."
- Index Funds Are Finally Sexy. What a Shame (Bloomberg) "In any given year, at least four out of five fund managers underperformed their benchmark. Instead of chasing hot funds or hot stocks, investors would have been better served putting their money in index funds. These funds, baskets of stocks that replicate a stock index like the S&P 500 or the Russell 2000, don’t try to beat the market, but simply aim to match it. That’s enough to beat 80 percent of actively managed funds in any given year, and better than almost all of them over a longer stretch of time. In addition, their low fees make a meaningful difference to an investor’s return. There were actually three drivers of index-fund growth: the explosion of exchange-traded funds, the rise of fee-based advisers, and the powerful bull market that began in 2009, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average, now over 20,000, stood at around 7,000."
- Why I Lost My Bet With Warren Buffett (Bloomberg) "Warren discussed the bet in this year’s annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway Inc. shareholders, explaining that the high fees active money managers charge create a headwind relative to low-cost passive alternatives. He is correct that hedge-fund fees are high, and his reasoning is convincing. Fees matter in investing, no doubt about it."
ENTERTAINMENT:
- The Secret Hit-Making Power of the Spotify Playlist (Wired) "Think of it as the moneyball of music, a ruthlessly data-driven approach to introducing listeners to songs. By the time a song lands on Today’s Top Hits or other equally popular sets, Spotify has so relentlessly tested it that it almost can’t fail."
- The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Is Still Alive (New Yorker) "This year, Journey, Tupac Shakur, Joan Baez, Yes, and Pearl Jam were inducted into the Hall alongside E.L.O., while the producer, guitarist, and songwriter Nile Rodgers received an award for Musical Excellence."
NEWS:
- Trump: ‘normalized’ but still scary (WaPo) "Ignore what’s behind the curtain. Deal with what comes out in front: the policy, the pronouncements, the actions. And so far they hang together enough — Neil Gorsuch, Keystone XL, NATO reassurances, Syria strike, Cabinet appointments — that one can begin to talk plausibly about the normalization of this presidency. What happens when the red phone rings at 3 in the morning? I’d say: Let it ring. Let the wizard sleep. Forward the call to Defense Secretary Mattis."
- Trump has a dangerous disability (WaPo) "It is urgent for Americans to think and speak clearly about President Trump’s inability to do either. This seems to be not a mere disinclination but a disability. It is not merely the result of intellectual sloth but of an untrained mind bereft of information and married to stratospheric self-confidence. His fathomless lack of interest in America’s path to the present and his limitless gullibility leave him susceptible to being blown about by gusts of factoids that cling like lint to a disorderly mind."
READ THIS:
- Wilson (A. Scott Berg) "From the scholar-President who ushered the country through its first great world war to the man of intense passion and turbulence, from the idealist determined to make the world 'safe for democracy' to the stroke-crippled leader whose incapacity and the subterfuges around it were among the century’s greatest secrets, the result is an intimate portrait written with a particularly contemporary point of view – a book at once magisterial and deeply emotional about the whole of Wilson’s life, accomplishments, and failings. This is not just Wilson the icon – but Wilson the man."
SOCIALIZED MEDICINE:
- There are exactly zero women working on the Senate version of the GOP health care bill (Quartz)
- ‘Nobody dies because they don’t have access to health care,’ GOP lawmaker says. He got booed (WaPo) "After the town hall Friday, Labrador said on his Facebook page, 'It was my privilege to spend two hours today in Lewiston fielding questions from my constituents, many of them about our efforts to provide quality health care to all Americans to an affordable and sustainable cost.'"
SPORTS:
- NFL players fight pain with medical marijuana: ‘Managing it with pills was slowly killing me’ (WaPo) "NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said last week that he opposes players using the drug recreationally but is willing to listen to the league’s medical advisers on the potential value of medicinal marijuana. The NFL Players Association has formed a pain management committee to study the issue, and many expect marijuana to become a bigger discussion point in the near future. The union could urge the league to differentiate between recreational and medicinal use or push to lessen the penalties for a failed test."
- This former NFL player lost 84 pounds in four months — and kept it off (LA Times) "I was eating at least 7,000 calories a day. I would start eating from the minute I woke up. I would pound protein bars, drink shakes, smoothies, eat a full breakfast with eggs, sausage — you name it. I had a bag of almonds that I would eat all day. I would have protein shakes after lunch. I would eat dinner and then consume half of one of those big tubs of Greek yogurt. Then, in bed at night, I would eat a pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Don’t wait. Losing weight is like climbing a mountain. If you look up at the mountain before you start, it’s going to be daunting. But if you just put your head down and start walking, you have a chance to accomplish the feat."
TECHNOLOGY:
- Robots don’t have to take over jobs in order to be a problem for workers (Quartz) "...humans will continue to have a competitive advantage over robots and algorithms…because they’ll be so poorly paid. This type of transition has played out multiple times in the past (which, to be fair, some argue is irrelevant). Technology creates new, skilled jobs...even as it deskills others, like taxi drivers. For those deskilled jobs, or at least some of them, wages fall. In other words: Don’t worry about machines replacing humans. Worry about machines replacing the skilled portions of human jobs, and leaving the cheap drudge work behind."
- How to Prepare for an Automated Future (NYT) "Pew Research Center and Elon University surveyed 1,408 people who work in technology and education to find out if they think new schooling will emerge in the next decade to successfully train workers for the future. Two-thirds said yes; the rest said no." and Bosses believe your work skills will soon be useless (WaPo)
THE EDGE OF HUMAN ENDURANCE:
- Nike’s Quest to Beat the Two-Hour Marathon Comes Up Oh So Short (Wired) "It was a close-run thing, but the two-hour marathon remains unbroken, for now, with Kipchoge finishing his marathon in 2 hours and 25 seconds. (Because the three elite athletes contesting Breaking2 ran with a roster of interchangeable pacemakers, which violates IAAF regulations, Kipchoge’s run will not become an official world record. The current world record for the marath:n still stands at 2.02.57, set in Berlin in 2014, by Dennis Kimetto, also of Kenya.)"
- Why You’ll Never Run a Sub 2 Hour Marathon—But the Pros Might (Wired) "...that number fails to convey the psychological and physical fortitude needed to pull it off."
- Ranking All 373 Rolling Stones Songs (Vulture)
TODAY'S SONG:
- Start Me Up (Rolling Stones)
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