Friday, July 13, 2018

Weekend Reading: Before a Hiatus Edition

I'm sending this out on my lunch break instead of after work because I have a science camp expo to go watch soon, and am going to be mostly offline this afternoon and evening. Even so, it has already been an eventful news day. I'm not going to include links to analysis about the latest round of indictments. But here's a thread that pulls out some particularly interesting parts. Note the one about the Congressional candidate.




My "if you read only one thing" pick this week is actually a recommendation for something to listen to. Ezra Klein had another chat with Susan Hennessey about the Russia investigation, Mueller, and the general state of play right now and it is once again very useful.

Some things to read:

I've seen many arguments that Democrats must not match Republican hardball tactics or we risk destroying our Republic. Jamelle Bouie essentially argues the opposite, and I find his argument the most convincing one yet for abandoning what I've seen called "normcore" politics. Here's an earlier Matt Yglesias essay on the same topic. (For what it's worth, I don't think statehood for DC is all that radical, and nor is statehood for Puerto Rico. I support those suggestions right now. No taxation without representation, right? Court-packing schemes seem far more radical to me, and I'm not at all convinced on those yet.)

If you're uncomfortable with the arguments for Democrats to change to hardball tactics, you might find it helpful to think about what happens if they don't, and we enter an era of persistent minority-rule by the Republicans. This short article by Seth Masket outlines three ways a minority party can govern. The Republicans have essentially done all three at this point. Look around and notice the mounting legitimacy crisis. How long do you think our government will continue to be seen as legitimate by the majority? What happens when the majority no longer sees a government as legitimate? 




We're in a scary place right now. I know I keep saying it, but the 2018 midterms are the most important elections of my lifetime. Please vote. Please think hard about all the implications of your vote this year. If you're as worried as I am, please try to find a way to get involved in the effort to turn things around.

I'm thinking of adding gubernatorial races to my list of races to consider sending money to:


Some good news: my state has met our greenhouse gas emission reduction goals for 2020 two years early. We'll have a much harder time meeting our 2030 goals, but I think we're up to the challenge. 

And here is a good thread about stories that are actually climate change stories:



This made me smile:


And so did this:


Bunny!


I'm going to be absent from this blog for a couple of weeks. I don't want this just to be a weekly list of links, but when I've sat down to write something more, it hasn't worked out. I am going to take a short break to try to get my writing mojo back.

Have a good couple of weeks, everyone! I hope to be back writing actual posts soon.

2 comments:

  1. I look forward to your return!

    ReplyDelete
  2. We miss you already!
    But it's important to take a break from words. Reading them, writing them, feeling like you should be writing more of them.

    ReplyDelete

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