The Day’s Reading, August 20–21, 2017

I did a run.

Elections

David Weigel, The Washington Post, Even in red states, liberal candidates are climbing into power in the nation’s cities (August 20, 2017)

Trump et al.

Prachi Gupta, The Slot, Trump Nominee Says Protecting LGBT Rights Could Lead to Legalizing Pedophilia (August 21, 2017)

Richard Cohen, The Washington Post, It’s too late to disavow Trump (August 21, 2017)

Kelsey Snell, The Washington Post, Ryan: Trump ‘messed up’ reaction to violence in Charlottesville (August 21, 2017)

Natalie Jennings, The Washington Post, Trump’s muscular but vague Afghanistan speech, annotated (August 21, 2017)

Jennifer Rubin, The Washington Post, Pence’s cardinal error: Sounding like Trump’s top sycophant (August 21, 2017)

Philip Bump, The Washington Post, In his speech about Afghanistan, Trump tries again to win the Battle of Charlottesville (August 21, 2017)

Damian Paletta, The Washington Post, Treasury secretary’s wife boasts of travel on government plane, touts Hermes and Valentino fashion (August 21, 2017) — one hour ago I did not know who Louise Linton was; now I want her to live on starvation rations in prison

Noah Bierman, Los Angeles Times, Former Sheriff Joe Arpaio ‘very unlikely’ to appear with Trump at Arizona campaign rally (August 21, 2017)

Seth Masket, Pacific Standard, The Dangers of a Weakened President (August 21, 2017) — basically: an unpopular, unloved president is still president with all the powers of the office, including starting wars. So if he’s really as bad as we all say he is, we have to remove him from office. Eh, Republicans?

J.C. Hallman, The Baffler, I Think Icahn, I Think Icahn . . . (August 21, 2017) — re dealing baccarat to Carl Icahn in 1999

Matea Gold & Anu Narayanswamy, The Washington Post, Republican committees have paid nearly $1.3 million to Trump-owned entities this year (August 21, 2017) — I would like to see how this compares to when he wasn’t President

Editorial Board, The Washington Post, The White House’s secretiveness is getting so bad, it’s probably illegal (August 20, 2017)

David Lauter, Los Angeles Times, No, Trump’s support hasn’t collapsed, but yes, he’s increasingly alone (August 20, 2017) — basically just a summary of where the various polls stand

John Cassidy, The New Yorker, Steve Bannon’s Departure Won’t Save Trump’s Presidency (August 18, 2017)

Panama Jackson, Very Smart Brothas, How Trump Ruined My Relationship With My White Mother (August 18, 2017)

John Wagner, The Washington Post, Mnuchin defends Trump’s comments on Charlottesville, rebuffs calls to resign (August 19, 2017) — why you lying

Kelefa Sanneh, The New Yorker, Tucker Carlson and Trump’s Confused Defenders (August 20, 2017)

Segregation

Richard Rothstein, Los Angeles Times, Why Los Angeles is still a segregated city after all these years (August 20, 2017)

Cartels

David Hernandez, Los Angeles Times, Brother of Sinaloa drug cartel leader arrested at Mexico-Arizona border (August 19, 2017) — why was the brother of a leader personally anywhere near the drugs?

Critics

Owen Gleiberman, Variety, Healthy Tomatoes? The Danger of Film Critics Speaking as One (August 20, 2017) — interesting argument

Republicans

Alex Pareene, Splinter, Charlottesville Was a Preview of the Future of the Republican Party (August 19, 2017)

Terrorism

Hannah Gold, Jezebel, Spanish Police Kill Five Suspects in Counter-Terrorism Raid Near Barcelona (August 17, 2017)

Contemporary Life

Ellie Shechet, Jezebel, Are Crotch Charms the New Towel Charms? (August 17, 2017)

Organizing

Joe Richard, Jacobin, Not Just Signing Cards (August 18, 2017) — I think one big important point here about patient organizing is that grievances are not pieces of paper filed by the union that represents the workers in order to start a quasi-legal process that ends in arbitration; they are problems the workers have with something management is doing, and they can be pressed in a variety of ways, from a simple complaint brought up verbally to the manager to a group marching into the boss’s office to a petition to complaints to Human Resources or up the corporate chain to government complaints (safety, wage and hour, discrimination, whatever other agencies happen to be part of the regulatory infrastructure for the industry). Once there is a union, there will probably be a grievance structure in the CBA, and that’s added to the menu of options, but grievances don’t start on the day the CBA is signed, they start on the day workers begin talking to each other about the problems they have and how they can solve them.

Ghosts

Michael E. Miller, The Washington Post, The shadow of an assassinated American Nazi commander hangs over Charlottesville (August 21, 2017)

Sadie Stein, The Paris Review, Priscilla: A Ghost Story (August 18, 2017)

TV

Tom Carson, Playboy, The Brilliance of Tina Fey’s Cake Satire, Explained (August 18, 2017) — positing that the bit was satire of white liberal cluelessness and privilege, not actually espousing those views. I dunno.

Michael Harriot, The Grapevine, This Week’s Game Of Thrones Was A Replay Of Every Black Fight Ever (August 21, 2017)

Workers

David Weigel, The Washington Post, Labor groups step up pressure on Trump to deliver (August 20, 2017)

The Times Editorial Board, Los Angeles Times, How many nurses does it take to change a patient’s blood? (August 21, 2017)

Protest

Dave Zirin, The Nation, White NFL Players and the Politics of Solidarity (August 21, 2017)

Andrea Castillo & Victoria Kim, Los Angeles Times, Counter-protesters swarm rally against illegal immigration in Laguna Beach (August 20, 2017)

Basketball

Tom Ziller, SB Nation, The Lakers might have tampered with Paul George. Who cares? (August 21, 2017)

Books

Doreen St. Félix, The New Yorker, A Memoir About Being a Black Gentrifier in Bed-Stuy (August 21, 2017)

Murder

Mark Berman, The Washington Post, Ohio judge shot in ‘ambush’ carried out by father of man convicted in Steubenville rape case, officials say (August 21, 2017) — note that they don’t think the rape case is related to this shooting

Matti Huuhtanen | AP, The Washington Post, Danish police find torso of woman after submarine sinking (August 21, 2017) — this is sad

Capitalists

Aaron Gregg, The Washington Post, Contractors see delays as Pentagon’s high-level jobs go unfilled (August 21, 2017)

Randy Bryce

David Weigel, The Washington Post, Challenger is making the most of Paul Ryan’s CNN town hall (August 21, 2017)

Dems

Aaron Blake, The Washington Post, The Democratic National Committee’s abysmal fundraising (August 21, 2017) — this is exceedingly shallow and doesn’t give any explanations or ideas. Don’t click if you already saw the graphic laying out RNC vs. DNC fundraising.

Paul Ryan

Addy Baird, ThinkProgress, Paul Ryan statement on Charlottesville completely misrepresents grieving mom (August 21, 2017)

Abortion

Stassa Edwards, Jezebel, After Ethics Complaints, Ohio Supreme Court Justice Won’t Recuse Herself in Abortion Case (August 21, 2017)

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Written by

Union lawyer, A's ESPN SweetSpot blogger. Bow ties, bright pants, hella cats. I dissent.

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